Mid-Day Market Update: Boxlight Jumps After Q4 Results; ENDRA Life Sciences Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.57 percent to 25,864.27 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.63 percent to 7,717.39. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.48 percent to 2,828.85.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Friday, the industrial shares rose 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included P.A.M. Transportation Services, Inc. PTSI up 5 percent, and Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. AAWW up 5 percent.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 0.3 percent.

Top Headline

BlackBerry Ltd BB reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter.

BlackBerry reported quarterly earnings of $0.11 per share on sales of $257 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.06 per share on sales of $241.66 million.

Equities Trading UP

Boxlight Corporation BOXL shares got a boost, shooting up 22 percent to $3.5300 after reporting strong Q4 results.

Shares of Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. APDN shot up 34 percent to $0.7236 after the company announced an exclusive cannabis licensing and cooperation agreement with Theracann International.

Galapagos NV GLPG shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $114.28. Gilead Sciences and GALAPAGOS announced that a Phase 3 study, dubbed FINCH3, of its investigational, oral, selective JAK1 inhibitor filgotinib in adults with moderately-to-severely active rheumatoid arthritis achieved its primary endpoint in the proportion of patients achieving an American College of Rheumatology 20 percent response at Week 24.

Equities Trading DOWN

ENDRA Life Sciences Inc. NDRA shares dropped 37 percent to $1.7921 after the company reported initial findings on its first Human TAEUS feasibility study of liver fat. The data showed a correlation of only .61 between ENDRA's thermoacoustic measurements and MRI.

Shares of SMART Global Holdings, Inc. SGH were down 20 percent to $19.12 after reporting a second-quarter earnings beat, while sales missed estimates. The company issued weak third-quarter earnings and sales guidance.

DPW Holdings, Inc. DPW was down, falling around 56 percent to $0.3082 after the company announced a public offering of its common stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.4 percent to $60.12 while gold traded up 0.3 percent to $1,298.70.

Silver traded up 1 percent Friday to $15.115, while copper rose 2.3 percent to $2.937.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.44 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.56 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.74 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.7 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.8 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.5 percent.

Economics

Personal incomes rose 0.2 percent in February, while spending increased 0.1 percent last month.

The Chicago PMI declined to 58.7 in March, versus prior reading of 64.7.

New-home sales rose 4.9 percent at an annual pace of 667,000 in February.

Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles will speak in New York at 12:45 p.m. ET.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.