Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 2%; GeoVax Labs Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.59% to 35,099.73 while the NASDAQ rose 0.99% to 14,685.63. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.69% to 4,436.42.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 37,296,810 cases with around 625,180 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 32,358,820 cases and 433,580 deaths, while Brazil reported over 20,494,210 COVID-19 cases with 572,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 210,073,340 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,404,570 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose 1.1% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP SBS, up 11% and PG&E Corporation PCG up 4%.

In trading on Friday, energy fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

Deere & Company DE reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter on Friday.

Deere reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $5.32 per share, surpassing analysts’ expectations of $4.57 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $11.53 billion, versus estimates of $10.30 billion.

Deere raised its FY21 net income guidance from $5.3 billion -$5.7 billion to $5.7 billion -$5.9 billion.

Equities Trading UP

GeoVax Labs, Inc. GOVX shares shot up 46% to $6.28 after the company presented data from ongoing studies of its preventive vaccine against COVID-19, showing its modified virus Ankara - virus like particle platform, has a design strategy for vaccines that is expected to induce broader immunity through inclusion of multiple structural and nonstructural proteins from the target pathogen.

Shares of Flora Growth Corp. FLGC got a boost, shooting 32% to $11.67
after the company reported its financial and operating results for the six months ending June 30, 2021, revealing revenues of over $2 million, compared to revenues of approximately $100 000 in the same period of last year.

360 DigiTech, Inc. QFIN shares were also up, gaining 15% to $19.45 after the company posted a rise in Q2 sales

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings, Inc. SONN shares tumbled 48% to $0.6351 after the company priced a 35.29 million share offering of common stock and warrants at $0.85 per unit.

Shares of HEXO Corp. HEXO were down 28% to $2.3050 after the company reported a $140 million public offering.

Progenity, Inc. PROG was down, falling 55% to $0.6722 after the company reported pricing of $40 million public offering of common stock and warrants.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.2% to $62.25, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,785.20.

Silver traded down 0.7% Friday to $23.06 while copper rose 2.2% to $4.1290.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.33%, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.15% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.27%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.41%, French CAC 40 rose 0.31% and Italy’s FTSE MIB slipped 0.04%.

German producer prices jumped 10.4% year-over-year in July following an 8.5% increase in the previous month. Retail sales volumes in the UK declined 2.5% in July, while the GfK consumer confidence index declined to -8 in August.

Economics

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 8 to 405 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Check out the full economic calendar here