Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; U.S. Unemployment Rate Drops To 13.3%

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 2.78% to 27012.09 while the NASDAQ rose 1.60% to 9769.23. The S&P also rose, gaining 2.23% to 3181.72.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 1,872,660 cases with around 108,210 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 614,940 COVID-19 cases with 34,020 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 449,250 confirmed cases and 5,520 deaths. In total, there were at least 6,658,330 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 391,580 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 6.6% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included QEP Resources, Inc. QEP, up 42%, and Callon Petroleum Company CPE, up 39%.

In trading on Friday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.9%.

Top Headline

Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 2.51 million in May compared to an expected contraction of 8 million and the previous month’s contraction of 20.69 million.

The U.S. unemployment rate contracted 1.4 percentage points in May to 13.3% — far exceeding economist forecasts of 19.8%

Equities Trading UP

Hermitage Offshore Services Ltd. PSV shares shot up 141% to $1.31 following Q1 results. Hermitage Offshore posted a quarterly loss of $0.25 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $0.98 per share.

Shares of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc. TTPH got a boost, shooting 25% to $2.66 after the company received FDA approval for its Supplemental New Drug Application for new strength of XERAVA for injection.

American Airlines Group Inc. AAL shares were also up, gaining 24% to $20.77. American Airlines surged more than 41% on Thursday after the company said it will boost its U.S. flight schedule next month. It plans to fly more than 55% of July domestic capacity.

Equities Trading DOWN

Slack Technologies, Inc. WORK shares tumbled 16% to $31.88. Slack Technologies reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter, but withdrew its annual billings guidance. Amazon and Slack also announced a strategic partnership in a bid to compete with Microsoft’s Teams.

Shares of Menlo Therapeutics Inc. MNLO were down 12% to $1.945 after the company priced its 27.05 million share common stock offering at $1.85 per share.

Titan Medical Inc. TMDI was down, falling 26% to $1.16. Titan Medical shares jumped 463% on Thursday after the company announced development and license agreements with Medtronic and a senior secured loan.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2.4% to $38.30, while gold traded down 1.1% to $1,709.30.

Silver traded down 1.3% Friday to $17.825, while copper rose 1.5% to $2.5255.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.4%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 1.6%, French CAC 40 rose 1.8% and UK shares rose 1.1%.

Economics

Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 2.51 million in May, while the U.S. unemployment rate contracted 1.4 percentage points in May to 13.3%.

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

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