Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down 3%; StealthGas Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.20% to 27796.34 while the NASDAQ rose 0.22% to 11,290.98. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.07% to 3,387.85.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 5,576,080 cases with around 174,290 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 3,501,970 COVID-19 cases with 112,300 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 2,905,820 confirmed cases and 54,840 deaths. In total, there were at least 22,707,350 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 794,250 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares gained 0.7% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Mobileiron Inc MOBL, up 12%, and Cambium Networks Corporation CMBM, up 11%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell by 1.3%.

Top Headline

Deere & Company DE reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter and raised its full-year earnings outlook.

Deere reported quarterly earnings of $2.57 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $1.26 per share. Equipment sales came in at $7.9 billion, exceeding expectations of $6.70 billion.

Deere said it now projects full-year net income of around $2.25 billion, versus previous forecast of $1.6 billion to $2 billion.

Equities Trading UP

ShiftPixy, Inc. PIXY shares shot up 28% to $4.42 after declining 11% in the prior sesion. ShiftPixy announced corporate relocation to Miami, Florida on Thursday.

Shares of The Buckle, Inc. BKE got a boost, shooting 21% to $19.76 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 sales.

StealthGas Inc. GASS shares were also up, gaining 15% to $2.9550 after the company reported strong Q2 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

VivoPower International PLC VVPR shares tumbled 19% to $2.9050. VivoPower is expected to report quarterly earnings on Monday, August 24, 2020. On Thursday, VivoPower International reported a contract for the new Carroll Cotton gin.

Shares of Cato Corp CATO were down 23% to $6.36 after the company swung to a loss in the second quarter.

Blink Charging Co BLNK was down, falling 14% to $6.85, potentially on continued weakness following short seller reports this week.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 3% to $41.55, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,945.80.

Silver traded down 1.3% Friday to $26.80, while copper fell 1.8% to $2.921.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.15%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.16%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.36%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.51%, French CAC 40 fell 0.3% and UK shares fell 0.19%.

Economics

The IHS Markit composite PMI climbed to 54.7 in August versus 50.3 in the earlier month. US manufacturing PMI rose to 53.6 from 50.9, while services PMI gained to 54.8 from 50.0.

U.S. existing home sales surged 24.7% to an annual rate of 5.86 million units in July.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.