Mid-Day Market Update: Gold Down 2%; Oasmia Pharmaceutical Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.83% to 26,742.22 while the NASDAQ fell 0.92% to 8,095.04. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.92% to 2,968.16.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares rose 0.05% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included AGM Group Holdings Inc. AGMH, up 7%, and Banco Bradesco S.A. BBDO, up 4%.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 1.5%.

Top Headline

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 224,000 in June, while the unemployment rate was little changed at 3.7%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists were expecting June nonfarm payroll data to show an increase of 165,000, jobs but the final numbers came in much better than expected.

The labor force participation rate was little changed in June at 62.9%, as was the number of long-term unemployed people at 1.4 million.

Equities Trading UP

Oasmia Pharmaceutical AB OASM shares shot up 77% to $2.18 after the company announced that an agreement has been reached with its largest shareholder Arwidsro to solve its outstanding balances; Arwidsro increased its investment in Oasmia.

Shares of Tyme Technologies, Inc. TYME got a boost, shooting up 29% to $1.5683 after the company presented updated data for its Phase 2 Study of TYME-88-Pancreatic Cancer at the ESMO GI 2019.

Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. GOL shares were also up, gaining 15% to $20.58 after the company reported year-over-year growth in preliminary passenger traffic figures for June.

Equities Trading DOWN

One Stop Systems, Inc. OSS shares tumbled 10% to $1.8654 on no company-specific news. Traders most likely took profits following a price spike on Wednesday after the company announced it had won a $60 million deal for 5 years.

Shares of AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. AQB were down 11% to $3.11.

Phunware, Inc.. PHUN was down, falling 10% to $2.1799.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $57.28, while gold traded down 2% to $1,392.20.

Silver traded down 2.3% Friday to $14.985, while copper fell 1% to $2.6575.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.74%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.56%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.57%. Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 0.65%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.62% while UK shares fell 0.68%.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 224,000 new jobs in June, while the unemployment rate increased to 3.7%. However, economists were expecting a gain of 165,000 jobs.

Data on money supply for the latest week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.