Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 3%; Digital Ally Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.29 percent to 21,381.93 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.67 percent to 6,130.04. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.35 percent to 2,418.12.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Technology shares rose by 1.9 percent in the US market on Friday. Top gainers in the sector included Fabrinet FN, and Inphi Corporation IPHI.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 0.83 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. TOO, down 10 percent, and Approach Resources Inc. AREX, down 8 percent.

Top Headline

The U.S. economy added 222,000 new jobs in June, while the unemployment rate increased to 4.4 percent from 4.3 percent.

Economists projected a gain of 179.000 jobs in June.

Equities Trading UP

Digital Ally, Inc. DGLY shares shot up 33 percent to $4.20 after the company reported “significant victory” in its legal battle with Axon Enterprise Inc AAXN. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) denied Axon’s petition for inter partes review (IPR) of Digital Ally’s ‘452 patent, one of four IPRs Axon submitted in an attempt to invalidate Digital Ally’s lawsuit. Axon received a favorable PTO ruling on the ‘292 patent, the original point of dispute, in June.

Shares of Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. ZN got a boost, shooting up 20 percent to $5.07.

Spark Energy Inc SPKE shares were also up, gaining 12 percent to $19.40. Guggenheim upgraded Spark Energy from Neutral to Buy.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cherokee Inc CHKE shares dropped 32 percent to $5.26 after the company reported a loss for its first quarter on Thursday. The company reported an adjusted loss of $0.07 per share, versus analysts’ estimates for a profit of $0.13 per share.

Shares of Dextera Surgical Inc DXTR were down 14 percent to $0.266 after the company disclosed that it has placed 'temporary shipping hold' on MicroCutter 5/80. The company also reported preliminary FY17 total product sales of $2.9 million to $3 million.

RadiSys Corporation RSYS was down, falling around 18 percent to $2.95 after the company lowered its sales forecast for the second quarter. The company now expects Q2 sales of $35 million, versus earlier outlook of $41 million to $47 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.14 percent to $44.09 while gold traded down 0.81 percent to $1,213.40.

Silver traded down 2.24 percent Friday to $15.625, while copper fell 0.51 percent to $2.648.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.19 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.32 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.48 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.06 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.28 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.12 percent.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 222,000 new jobs in June, while the unemployment rate increased to 4.4 percent from 4.3 percent.

Domestic supplies of natural gas gained 72 billion cubic feet for the week ended June 30, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a rise of 64 billion cubic feet.

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