Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Surges 5%; Slack Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 3.64% to 27239.01 while the NASDAQ rose 2% to 9808.04. The S&P also rose, gaining 2.85% to 3201.13.

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 7.8% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Transocean Ltd. RIG, up 40%, and Callon Petroleum Company CPE, up 51%.

In trading on Friday, consumer staples shares rose by just 1.5%.

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 89% to $1.0250 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 19% to $2.5350 after the company received FDA approval for its Supplemental New Drug Application for new strength of XERAVA for injection.

Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. HTZ shares were also up, gaining 98% to $2.97 mid volatility after the company recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Equities Trading DOWN

Slack Technologies, Inc. WORK shares tumbled 16% to $31.98. 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 31% to $1.0799. 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 5% to $39.29, while gold traded down 2.8% to $1,679.70.

Silver traded down 3.1% Friday to $17.505, while copper rose 3% to $2.563.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 2.33%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 4.09%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 2.83%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 3.21%, French CAC 40 rose 3.52% and UK shares rose 2.2%.

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.