Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges 80 Points; ChemoCentryx Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.24% to 34,835.06 while the NASDAQ fell 0.13% to 14,635.04. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.13% to 4,405.69.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 44,160,450 cases with around 710,180 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,915,560 cases and 450,120 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,532,550 COVID-19 cases with 599,810 deaths. In total, there were at least 236,882,420 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,836,830 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 2.9% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Hallador Energy Company HNRG, up 18% and Goodrich Petroleum Corporation GDP up 8%.

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

Top Headline

The US economy added 194,000 jobs in September, the lowest so far this year. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting for a 500,000 gain. The US unemployment rate, however, declined to 4.8% in September from 5.2%.

 

Equities Trading UP

ChemoCentryx, Inc. CCXI shares shot up 99% to $39.00. The FDA approved ChemoCentryx’s Tavneos (avacopan) as an adjunctive treatment for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated vasculitis (ANCA-associated vasculitis or ANCA vasculitis).

Shares of Aehr Test Systems AEHR got a boost, shooting 19% to $19.82. Craig-Hallum raised the price target on Aehr Test Systems to $31 from $12, implying an 86.1% upside, and reiterated a Buy.

ReShape Lifesciences Inc. RSLS shares were also up, gaining 22% to $3.0150. Maxim Group initiated coverage on Reshape Lifesciences with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $8.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. ALLO shares tumbled 45% to $13.38 after the company reported the FDA placed a hold on the company's AlloCAR T clinical trials.

Shares of Cellectis S.A. CLLS were down 23% to $9.25. Baird downgraded Cellectis from Outperform to Neutral and lowered the price target from $39 to $10.

Agile Therapeutics, Inc. AGRX was down, falling 26% to $0.7011 as the company reported pricing of $22,666,650 underwritten public offering of common stock and warrants.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $79.45, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,760.10.

Silver traded up 0.4% Friday to $22.75 while copper rose 0.7% to $4.2725.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.28%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.09% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.29%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.25%, French CAC 40 fell 0.61% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.23%.

German current account surplus shrank to EUR 11.8 billion in August from EUR 16.7 billion in the year-ago month, while trade surplus narrowed to €10.7 billion from €11.9 billion.

Economics

The US economy added 194,000 jobs in September, the lowest so far this year. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting for a 500,000 gain. The US unemployment rate, however, declined to 4.8% in September from 5.2%.

US wholesale inventories increased 1.2% to $731.1 billion in August.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs climbed by 5 to 433 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Check out the full economic calendar here