Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges 250 Points; Juno Therapeutics Shares Tumble

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 1.40 percent to 18,146.81 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.57 percent to 4,953.57. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.47 percent to 2,128.65.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Friday, basic materials shares gained by 2.57 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Huntsman Corporation HUN and L.B. Foster Co FSTR.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares rose by just 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included TransAlta Corporation (USA) TAC, down 1 percent, and Huaneng Power International Inc (ADR) HNP, down 1 percent.

Top Headline

Polycom, Inc. PLCM revealed Friday that private equity firm, Siris Capital Group, LLC and its affiliates, have submitted a unilaterally binding offer to buy all outstanding shares for $12.50 per share in cash.

The company indicated that the all-cash transaction was valued at about $2.0 billion. That included outstanding debt. The current offer represented a premium of 13.6 percent to the existing value of Mitel's offer, based on Mitel's closing share price as of July 7.

Equities Trading UP

Eleven Biotherapeutics Inc EBIO shares shot up 32 percent to $2.59 after the company reported the effectiveness of IND application for EBI-031.

Shares of Resolute Energy Corp REN got a boost, shooting up 22 percent to $3.61 as the company agreed to sell Permain Basin mid-stream assets.

Digital Ally, Inc. DGLY shares were also up, gaining 63 percent to $6.75 following the deadly shooting in Dallas in which five police offers were murdered by a sniper.

Equities Trading DOWN

Juno Therapeutics Inc JUNO shares dropped 31 percent to $28.08 after the company announced JCAR015's Phase 2 trial was put on hold after two patients died last week.

Shares of T2 Biosystems Inc TTOO were down 29 percent to $5.41. T2 Biosystems extended timeline for the completion of the T2Bacteria trial. BTIG downgraded the rating on T2 Biosystems from Buy to Sell, while lowering the price target from $12 to $4.

Galena Biopharma Inc GALE was down, falling around 12 percent to $0.454. Galena Biopharma priced 28 million shares at $0.45 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.60 percent to $44.87 while gold traded down 0.40 percent to $1,356.70.

Silver traded up 0.46 percent Friday to $19.93, while copper rose 0.07 percent to $2.13.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.6 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index climbed 2.29 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 3.76 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 2.17 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.72 percent, while U.K. shares rose 0.87 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 287,000 new jobs in June, while the unemployment rate increased to 4.9 percent from 4.7 percent. Economists were expecting a 175,000 rise in new nonfarm jobs.

Data on consumer credit for May will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.