Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.45% to 34,705.48 while the NASDAQ rose 1.35% to 13,816.46. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.77% to 4,233.93.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,605,480 cases with around 580,060 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 21,491,590 cases and 234,080 deaths, while Brazil reported over 15,003,560 COVID-19 cases with 416,940 deaths. In total, there were at least 156,151,460 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,258,410 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Information technology shares rose 1.2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included MoneyGram International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGI), up 18%, and Bill.com Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BILL), up 15%.
In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 0.3%.
Top Headline
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released employment data for the month of April.
The nonfarm payroll number came in at +266,000, well worse than consensus economist expectations of +1 million. The unemployment rate increased by 0.1% to 6.1%. April’s job growth represents a sharp drop from the 770,000 jobs the economy gained in March.
Equities Trading UP
Core Molding Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: CMT) shares shot up 20% to $13.62 after the company reported higher Q1 earnings.
Shares of Epizyme, Inc. (NASDAQ: EPZM) got a boost, shooting 18% to $8.02 after SVB Leerink upgraded the stock from Market Perform to Outperform and raised its price target from $12 to $16per share.
Pro-Dex, Inc. (NASDAQ: PDEX) shares were also up, gaining 19% to $35.00 after reporting a rise in quarterly earnings.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
ChemoCentryx, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCXI) shares tumbled 59% to $11.40 after the company said the FDA’s Arthritis Advisory Committee that evaluated avacopan for the treatment of antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated vasculitis gave a split verdict on whether the efficacy data support approval of avacopan. The committee voted 9-7 in favor of safety and 10-8 that the benefit-risk profile is adequate to support approval of avacopan at the proposed dose of 30 mg twice daily.
Shares of F-star Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSTR) were down 21% to $7.02 after the company priced its 9.29 million shares common stock offering at $7 per share.
Orphazyme A/S (NASDAQ: ORPH) was down, falling 29% to $6.00 after the company announced that the ORARIALS-01 pivotal trial of arimoclomol in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) did not meet its primary and secondary endpoints.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $64.75, while gold traded up 0.9% to $1,831.80.
Silver traded down 0.3% Friday to $27.39 while copper rose 2.7% to $4.7255.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.79%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.89% and the German DAX 30 gained 1.17%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.75%, French CAC 40 rose 0.29% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.46%.
UK’s construction PMI slipped to 61.6 in April from the previous month’s level of 61.7. Spain’s industrial production surged 12.4% year-over-year in March, while retail sales in Italy declined 0.1% in March. French industrial production increased 0.8% in March, while trade gap increased to EUR 6.1 billion in March from a revised EUR 5.1 billion in February.
Germany reported a current account surplus of EUR 30.2 billion in March versus a EUR 24.8 billion surplus in the year-ago month, while industrial production climbed 2.5% in March.
Economics
The nonfarm payroll number came in at +266,000, well worse than consensus economist expectations of +1 million. The unemployment rate increased by 0.1% to 6.1%.
US wholesale inventories rose 1.3% to $693.6 billion in March.
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Data on consumer credit for March will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.
(C) 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
