Mid-Afternoon Market Update: SMART Global Jumps Following Strong Q4 Results; Aytu BioScience Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.79 percent to 26,416.81 while the NASDAQ declined 1.27 percent to 7,779.83. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.65 percent to 2,882.64.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the utilities shares rose 1.6 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais CIG up 8 percent, and AquaVenture Holdings Limited WAAS up 5 percent.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell 1.56 percent.

Top Headline

The U.S. economy added 134,000 new jobs in September, while unemployment rate declined to 3.7 percent from 3.9 percent. However, economists were expecting a gain of 168,000 jobs.

Equities Trading UP

SMART Global Holdings, Inc. SGH shares shot up 27 percent to $34.37 after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and issued strong first-quarter earnings guidance.

Shares of GTx, Inc. GTXI got a boost, shooting up 25 percent to $1.76.

The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. CHEF shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $38.96. The Chefs' Warehouse will replace Penn National Gaming in the S&P SmallCap 600 on Wednesday, October 10.

Equities Trading DOWN

KemPharm, Inc. KMPH shares dropped 35 percent to $2.72. KemPharm priced its 8.33 million share common stock offering at $3.00 per share.

Shares of Aytu BioScience, Inc. AYTU were down 35 percent to $1.32. Aytu BioScience priced its 8.8 million share common stock offering at $1.50 per share.

Histogenics Corporation HSGX was down, falling around 38 percent to $0.6165. Histogenics Corporation priced its 26.155 million share common stock and warrant offering at $0.65 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.3 percent to $74.55 while gold traded up 0.3 percent to $1,205.20.

Silver traded up 0.51 percent Friday to $ 14.665, while copper fell 0.54 to $2.7625.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.86 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.65 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.3 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.08 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.95 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.35 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 134,000 new jobs in September, while unemployment rate declined to 3.7 percent from 3.9 percent. However, economists were expecting a gain of 168,000 jobs.

U.S. trade deficit increased 6.4 percent to $53.2 billion for August. U.S. exports slipped 0.8 percent to $209.4 billion, while imports increased 0.6 percent to $262.7 billion in August.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 2 to 861 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

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