Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Up 3.5%; BeyondSpring Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.41% to 26187.53 while the NASDAQ rose 0.66% to 10,008.69. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.42% to 3,128.29.

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 1.1% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Marathon Petroleum Corporation MPC, up 5%, and NextDecade Corporation NEXT, up 11%.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 0.4%.

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 115% to $16.52 after President Daniel Cohen disclosed a 74.61% stake in the company.

Shares of Comstock Holding Companies, Inc. CHCI got a boost, shooting 38% to $3.37. Comstock disclosed that its capital markets group arranged a $73 Freddie Mac loan for the BLVD I - Reston Station apartments.

Immuron Limited IMRN shares were also up, gaining 42% to $11.05 after the company announced a partnership with CSIRO to produce new oral therapeutic for clinical evaluation by the US Department of Defense.

Equities Trading DOWN

BeyondSpring Inc. BYSI shares tumbled 19% to $13.50 after the company priced its public offering of 1,930,000 ordinary shares at $13.00 per share.

Shares of Obalon Therapeutics, Inc. OBLN were down 27% to $0.78 following Q1 results. Obalon Therapeutics posted a Q1 loss of $0.68 per share on sales of $780,000.

Yatra Online, Inc. YTRA was down, falling 18% to $0.8001 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 3.5% to $40.18, while gold traded up 1.6% to $1,758.80.

Silver traded up 2.9% Friday to $18.01, while copper rose 1.7% to $2.631.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.6%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.36%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.78%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 climbed 0.53%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.57% and UK shares rose 1.09%.

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.

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.