Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Rises 2%; Navios Maritime Acquisition Shares Climb On Merger News

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.63% to 35,436.38 while the NASDAQ rose 1.23% to 15,130.14. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.88% to 4,509.16.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 38,384,590 cases with around 633,560 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 32,603,180 cases and 436,860 deaths, while Brazil reported over 20,676,560 COVID-19 cases with 577,560 deaths. In total, there were at least 214,647,600 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,474,710 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained 2.6% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included TETRA Technologies, Inc. TTI, up 15% and PBF Energy Inc. PBF up 14%.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

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

Big Lots posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.09 per share, missing market estimates of $1.13 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.46 billion, versus estimates of $1.48 billion.

Big Lots said it expects FY21 earnings of $5.90 to $6.05 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $6.74 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Support.com, Inc. SPRT shares shot up 122% to $43.77 on abnormally high volume amid continued volatility. The stock has recently been mentioned as a potential short squeeze play by traders on social media.

Shares of Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation NNA got a boost, shooting 55% to $3.2550. Navios Maritime Partners L.P. and Navios Maritime Acquisition Corp have agreed to merge; under the agreement, shareholders of Navios Acquisition will receive 0.1275 of a common unit of Navios Partners for each share.

Bill.com Holdings, Inc. BILL shares were also up, gaining 29% to $282.09 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 sales and issued strong sales guidance. Various analysts raised their price targets on the stock.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Applied Therapeutics, Inc. APLT shares tumbled 14% to $15.27. Goldman Sachs downgraded Applied Therapeutics from Neutral to Sell and announced a $10 price target.

Shares of Hibbett, Inc. HIBB were down 11% to $88.61. Hibbett reported a second-quarter FY22 sales decline of 5.1% year on year, to $419.26 million, beating the analyst consensus of $320.89 million.

Cassava Sciences, Inc. SAVA was down, falling 15% to $60.33 following a release by Quanterix that commented on Cassava's recent data for its Alzheimer's candidate.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.1% to $68.84, while gold traded up 1.4% to $1,820.40.

Silver traded up 2.2% Friday to $24.07 while copper rose 1.5% to $4.3250.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.43%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.33% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.37%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.32%, French CAC 40 rose 0.24% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.56%.

The consumer confidence indicator in France declined by 1 point to a reading of 99 in August. Import prices in Germany surged 15% annually in July. Consumer confidence in Italy declined to 116.2 in August from 116.6 in July, while manufacturing confidence dropped to 113.4 in August from 115.2 in July.

Economics

The US goods trade deficit shrank to $86.38 billion in July from $92.05 billion in the prior month.

Personal income increased 1.1% in July, while personal spending rose 0.3%. The personal consumption expenditure price index increased 0.4% in July.

Wholesale inventories rose 0.6% to $722 billion in July.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index was revised higher to 70.3 in August from a preliminary level of 70.2.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 5 to 410 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Check out the full economic calendar here