Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises 150 Points; Obalon Therapeutics Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.66 percent to 23,290.61 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.89 percent to 6,638.31. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.72 percent to 2,506.74.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Friday afternoon, the consumer discretionary shares rose by 0.6 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Niu Technologies NIU up 15 percent, and Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. APRN up 16 percent.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 0.8 percent.

Top Headline

Opko Health Inc. OPK and its Chairman and CEO Philip Frost announced an agreement with the SEC to resolve the action brought against the former two.

The company, though not admitting or denying SEC's allegations, agreed to an injunction from certain violations of the SEC Act of 1934, a $100,000 penalty and performing certain undertakings related to the Act. Frost, on his part, has agreed to pay $5.5 million in penalty, disgorgement, and prejudgment interest, and a prohibition, with certain exceptions, from trading in penny stocks

Equities Trading UP

Quantum Corp QTM shares got a boost, shooting up 27 percent to $1.8979 after the company secured $210 million in long-term financing to repay outstanding debt.

Shares of Cool Holdings, Inc. AWSM shot up 65 percent to $2.1986 after the company reported an 8-K filing stating its intention to regain Nasdaq listing compliance by hiring a new auditing director to replace its recently resigned director, Aaron Serruya.

vTv Therapeutics Inc. VTVT shares were also up, gaining 173 percent to $2.81 after the company exercised its right to have MacAndrews & Forbes Group purchase 815k shares at $1.84 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Obalon Therapeutics, Inc. OBLN shares dropped 15 percent to $2.21 after the company announced two financing agreements that would provide access to $30 million in capital. The company said it has entered into a common stock purchase agreement and registration rights agreement with Chicago-based Lincoln Park Capital Fund for up to $20 million. Separately, the company entered into an at-the-market equity sales agreement with Canaccord Genuity to issue common shares from treasury, at prevailing market prices, to raise gross proceeds of up to $10 million.

Shares of Uxin Limited UXIN were down 25 percent to $4.95 after dropping 20.7 percent on Thursday.

ReShape Lifesciences Inc. RSLS was down, falling around 30 percent to $0.2411 after Nasdaq notified the company its shares will be delisted.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.59 percent to $45.32 while gold traded up 0.01 percent to $1,281.20.

Silver traded up 0.49 percent Friday to $15.385, while copper rose 0.49 percent to $2.681.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 2.02 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 1.55 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 1.44 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 1.71 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.74 percent while U.K. shares rose 2.27 percent.

Economics

The Chicago PMI dropped to 65.40 for December, versus prior reading of 66.40. However, economists were expecting a reading of 63.00.

The pending home sales index declined 0.7 percent to 101.4 for November.

Domestic supplies of natural gas slipped 48 billion cubic feet for the latest week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

Domestic crude supplies dropped 46,000 barrels for the week ended December 21, the Energy Information Administration reported. Gasoline stockpiles climbed 3 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose 2,000 barrels last week.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs gained by 2 to 885 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.