Mid-Afternoon Market Update: S&P 500 Turns Negative; Vaccinex Shares Spike Higher


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Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.09% to 31,520.48 while the NASDAQ rose 0.02% to 13,868.58. However, the S&P fell 0.18% to 3,906.96.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 27,896,700 cases with around 493,110 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,963,390 confirmed cases and 156,110 deaths, while Brazil reported over 10,030,620 COVID-19 cases with 243,450 deaths. In total, there were at least 110,394,360 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,443,540 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors


Industrials shares rose 1.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Energous Corporation (NASDAQ:WATT), up 68%, and The ExOne Company (NASDAQ:XONE), up 16%.


In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell by 1.3%.


Top Headline

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Deere reported quarterly earnings of $3.87 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.16 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $9.11 billion, versus expectations of $7.21 billion.


Equities Trading UP


Vaccinex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCNX) shares shot up 88% to $5.40 after the company announced the signing of multiproject deals with two prominent pharma companies that Vaccinex did not identify. The collaborations, Vaccinex said, will focus on using ActivMAb, its antibody discovery and novel viral display platform, for antibody discovery against complex antigens such as GPCRs and ion channels.


Shares of Evolus, Inc. (NASDAQ:EOLS) got a boost, shooting 70% to $12.17. Evolus, AbbVie, and Medytox announced settlement agreements to fully resolve all outstanding litigation, including the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) case regarding the sale of Jeuveau. It is a prescription medicine injected into muscles and used in adults temporarily to improve the look of moderate to severe frown lines between the eyebrows (glabellar lines).

Casa Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CASA) shares were also up, gaining 37% to $11.67 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued strong FY21 sales guidance.

Check out these big movers of the day


Equities Trading DOWN


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PDF Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:PDFS) shares tumbled 14% to $18.28 after reporting a loss for the fourth quarter.

Shares of Rackspace Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:RXT) were down 15% to $21.14 after the company issued FY21 earnings guidance below estimates.

Conduent Incorporated (NASDAQ:CNDT) was down, falling 14% to $4.99 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.


Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.6% to $59.53, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,779.70.


Silver traded up 1% Friday to $27.335 while copper rose 4.2% to $4.0660.


Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.53%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.16% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.77%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.79%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.94%.

The Eurozone manufacturing PMI climbed to 57.7 in February from 54.8 in January, while services PMI fell to 44.7 from 45.4. Eurozone’s current account surplus increased to EUR 51.9 billion in December from EUR 33.4 billion in the year-ago month.

The annual inflation rate in France rose to 0.6% in January, while German producer prices rose 0.9% year-on-year in January. Retail sales in the UK tumbled 8.2% in January.


Economics


The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI declined to 58.5 in February from 59.2 in January, while services PMI climbed to 58.9 in February from 58.3 in the prior month.


US existing home sales rose 0.6% to 6.69 million units in January.


The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 1 to 305 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Check out the full economic calendar here


Crypto Whales Are Loading Up — Are You?

New research shows the biggest crypto buyers are back. And this time? They could hold for the possibility that Bitcoin will surpass $100,000 in 2024. You don’t want to miss the next massive crypto bull run like we saw in 2020 and 2021. To know exactly what’s going on and what to buy… Get Access To Benzinga’s Best Crypto Research and Investments For Only $1.


Posted In: EarningsNewsEurozoneCommoditiesSmall CapGlobalIntraday UpdateMarketsMid-Afternoon Market Update