Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Jabil Tops Q3 Estimates

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.78% to 26282.78 while the NASDAQ rose 1% to 10042.63. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.81% to 3,140.57.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 2,191,200 cases with around 118,430 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 978,140 COVID-19 cases with 47,740 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 568,290 confirmed cases and 7,830 deaths. In total, there were at least 8,509,390 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 454,380 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1.9% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Chesapeake Energy Corporation CHK, up 6%, and NextDecade Corporation NEXT, up 7%.

In trading on Friday, financial shares rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

Jabil Inc JBL reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Jabil reported quarterly earnings of $0.37 per share on Friday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $0.32. The company reported quarterly sales of $6.30 billion, which surpassed the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion.

Jabil said it expects Q4 adjusted earnings of $0.46 to $0.86 per share on sales of $5.8 billion to $6.6 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Cohen & Company Inc. COHN shares shot up 132% to $17.83 after President Daniel Cohen disclosed a 74.61% stake in the company.

Shares of Comstock Holding Companies, Inc. CHCI got a boost, shooting 59% to $3.895. Comstock disclosed that its capital markets group arranged a $73 Freddie Mac loan for the BLVD I - Reston Station apartments.

Pintec Technology Holdings Limited PT shares were also up, gaining 44% to $1.5899 after the company reported that it has expanded its cooperation with China Telecom Bestpay to provide intelligent handset installment services to Bestpay’s government and enterprise customers.

Equities Trading DOWN

BeyondSpring Inc. BYSI shares tumbled 19% to $13.51 after the company priced its its public offering of 1,930,000 ordinary shares at $13.00 per share.

Shares of American Software, Inc. AMSWA were down 11% to $17.88 after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Yatra Online, Inc. YTRA was down, falling 17% to $0.8008 after the company priced 12.5 million share public offering of ordinary shares at $0.80 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2.6% to $39.85, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,738.90.

Silver traded up 1% Friday to $17.685, while copper rose 1.6% to $2.6305.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.9%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.9%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.7%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 climbed 0.9%, French CAC 40 climbed 1.2% and UK shares rose 1.3%.

Economics

The US current account deficit shrank by $0.1 billion to $104.2 billion in the first quarter, versus analysts’ estimates of a $103 billion deficit.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles will speak at 12:00 p.m. ET.

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

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester will speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.