Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Falls 150 Points; Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.58 percent to 25,845.79 while the NASDAQ declined 0.16 percent to 7,910.30. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.31 percent to 2,869.09.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Friday, the consumer discretionary shares rose 0.13 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included MCBC Holdings, Inc. MCFT up 12 percent, and Five Below, Inc. FIVE up 13 percent.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 1.14 percent.

Top Headline

Genesco Inc GCO reporting upbeat results for its second quarter.

Genesco posted quarterly earnings of $0.04 per share on revenue of $ $653.892 million. However, analysts were expecting loss of $0.03 per share on revenue of $641.07 million.

Equities Trading UP

Okta, Inc. OKTA shares shot up 20 percent to $72.41 after reporting a second-quarter earnings beat. The company issued strong Q3 and FY19 earnings and sales guidance.

Shares of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc DRNA got a boost, shooting up 18 percent to $15.40. Dicerna priced its 7.6 million share follow-on public offering of common stock at $13.02 per share.

Netlist, Inc. NLST shares were also up, gaining 107 percent to $0.305 after the nano-cap memory product company confirmed the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a favorable claim construction order. The company says marks an "important turning point" in a patent dispute with SK hynix.

Equities Trading DOWN

eGain Corporation EGAN shares dropped 25 percent to $9.60 after reporting Q4 results.

Shares of Korn/Ferry International KFY were down 20 percent to $51.45. Korn/Ferry Intl posted Q1 earnings of $0.78 per share on sales of $465.6 million.

Advaxis, Inc. ADXS was down, falling around 29 percent to $1.0101 after the company priced a mixed offering for an aggregate amount of $20 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.87 percent to $67.18 while gold traded down 0.25 percent to $1,201.30.

Silver traded up 0.10 percent Friday to $14.195, while copper fell 0.61 to $2.6205.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.08 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.41 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.39 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.04 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.16 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.56 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 201,000 new jobs in August. However, economists were projecting a 191,000 rise in new nonfarm jobs. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.9 percent for August.

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