Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges 200 Points; Sutro Biopharma Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.68% to 30,173.52 while the NASDAQ rose 0.53% to 12,442.66. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.71% to 3,692.88.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 14,147,730 cases with around 276,400 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 9,571,550 confirmed cases and 139,180 deaths, while Brazil reported over 6,487,080 COVID-19 cases with 175,270 deaths. In total, there were at least 65,315,460 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,508,900 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 5.1% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Callon Petroleum Company CPE, up 26%, and Laredo Petroleum, Inc. LPI, up 23%.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell 1.3%.

Top Headline

Big Lots, Inc. BIG reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter on Friday.

Big Lots posted quarterly earnings of $0.76 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $0.66 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.38 billion, also exceeding expectations of $1.35 billion. Its same-store sales climbed 17.8% year over year.

Equities Trading UP

Pioneer Power Solutions, Inc. PPSI shares shot up 46% to $5.20 after the company announced a conclusive settlement with Myers Power Products.

Shares of Star Peak Energy Transition Corp. STPK got a boost, shooting 57% to $15.82 after Stem, Inc. announced it will go public through a merger with Star Peak.

Sutro Biopharma, Inc. STRO shares were also up, gaining 31% to $22.20 after the company reported announced updated data from its ongoing dose-escalation Phase 1 study of STRO-002, an antibody-drug conjugate, for patients with ovarian cancer, showing that out of the 31 evaluable patients, 10 patients met RECIST criteria.

Equities Trading DOWN

Yext, Inc. YEXT shares tumbled 16% to $16.15 after the company issued weak Q4 sales guidance. DA Davidson maintained Yext with a Buy and lowered the price target from $22 to $20.5.

Shares of Cortexyme, Inc. CRTX were down 19% to $38.81 as the company announced that the independent Data Monitoring Committee conducted a pre-planned interim analysis and recommended Cortexyme continue the Phase 2/3 GAIN trial of its Alzheimer's candidate atuzaginstat as planned to the 1-year endpoint. Top-line results are expected as planned in December 2021.

Precision BioSciences, Inc. DTIL was down, falling 18% to $8.34 after reporting interim clinical results from its Phase 1/2a study of PBCAR0191.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.3% to $46.21, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,840.70.

Silver traded up 0.6% Friday to $24.29 while copper rose 1% to $3.5260.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.59%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.49%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.78%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.35%, French CAC 40 rose 0.62% and London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.92%.

The Eurozone construction PMI increased to 45.6 in November versus 44.9 in the earlier month. The UK construction PMI climbed to 54.7 in November versus a five-month low reading of 53.1 in the prior month, while German construction PMI rose to 45.6 from 45.2.

Economics

The US economy added 245,000 jobs in November, versus a revised 610,000 in the prior month. The unemployment rate declined to 6.7% in November from 6.9% in the previous month.

The US trade deficit increased to $63.1 billion in October versus a revised $62.1 billion in the prior month. Imports to the US increased by $5.0 billion to $245.1 billion in October.

US factory orders increased 1% in October versus a revised 1.1% increase in the earlier month.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 5 to 246 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.