Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Jumps Over 900 Points; Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 3.54% to 27212.05 while the NASDAQ rose 2.23% to 9830.04. The S&P also rose, gaining 2.95% to 3,204.28.

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 7.6% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included QEP Resources, Inc. QEP, up 57%, and Callon Petroleum Company CPE, up 67%.

In trading on Friday, consumer staples shares rose by just 1.6%.

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 87% to $1.0132 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 17% to $2.49 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 77% to $2.6599 mid volatility after the company recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Equities Trading DOWN

Slack Technologies, Inc. WORK shares tumbled 13% to $33.11. 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.

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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 36% to $1.00. 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 5.6% to $39.49, while gold traded down 2.5% to $1,684.70.

Silver traded down 3.1% Friday to $17.51, while copper rose 2.4% to $2.549.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 2.48%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 4.04%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 2.82%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 3.36%, French CAC 40 rose 3.71% and UK shares rose 2.25%.

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 total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 16 to 206 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

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