Mid-Day Market Update: Gold Futures Up Over 1%; DryShips Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.02 percent to 20,667.57 while the NASDAQ rose 0.08 percent to 5,883.50. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.01 percent to 2,357.53.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Friday, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services sector proved to be a source of strength for the market.

In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 0.16 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included C&F Financial Corp CFFI, down 4 percent, and Norwood Financial Corporation NWFL, down 3 percent.

Top Headline

The U.S. economy added 98,000 new jobs in March, versus an addition of 235,000 jobs in the prior month. However, economists were expecting a gain of 180,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate declined to 4.5 percent in March, compared to 4.7 percent.

Equities Trading UP

Cleantech Solutions International Inc CLNT shares shot up 22 percent to $8.21 as the company reported that it has regained compliance with the NASDAQ minimum bid price listing requirement.

Shares of Ryerson Holding Corp RYI got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $14.35. Ryerson expects Q1 net income of $12 million to $15 million.

STRATA Skin Sciences Inc SSKN shares were also up, gaining 54 percent to $3.93. STRATA Skin Sciences reported a 1-for-5 reverse stock split.

Equities Trading DOWN

DryShips Inc. DRYS shares dropped 27 percent to $0.752. DryShips Inc. DRYS reported a 1-for-4 reverse stock split.

Shares of Catalyst Biosciences Inc CBIO were down around 24 percent to $5.58. Catalyst Biosciences reported the pricing of $18 million offering of Class A units at $5 per unit

Bellerophon Therapeutics Inc BLPH was down, falling around 11 percent to $1.31 after the company announced clinical data on INOpulse presented at the 37th Annual Meeting for the ISHLT.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.66 percent to $52.04 while gold traded up 1.24 percent to $1,268.90.

Silver traded up 0.65 percent Friday to $18.365, while copper fell 1.30 percent to $2.6235.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.10 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.31 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.10 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.26 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.05 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.47 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 98,000 new jobs in March, versus an addition of 235,000 jobs in the prior month. However, economists were expecting a gain of 180,000 jobs. The unemployment rate declined to 4.5 percent in March, compared to 4.7 percent.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose 0.4 percent for February.

New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley is set to speak in New York at 12:15 p.m. ET.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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