Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 1.39% to 35,398 while the NASDAQ fell 0.30% to 15,134.89. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.92% to 4,625.58.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 51,435,650 cases with around 824,520 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,726,040 cases and 476,860 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,204,940 COVID-19 cases with 617,520 deaths. In total, there were at least 273,330,020 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,355,740 deaths.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Real estate shares climbed 0.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included eXp World Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPI), up 5% and CatchMark Timber Trust, Inc. (NYSE:CTT) up 5%.
In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 1.3%.
Top Headline
Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and raised its FY22 sales guidance.
Darden reported quarterly earnings of $1.48 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.43 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $2.27 billion, versus expectations of $2.23 billion.
Darden raised its FY22 sales guidance from $9.4 billion-$9.6 billion to $9.55 billion-$9.7 billion. The company said Chairman and CEO Gene Lee will retire in May 2022 and named President and CFO Rick Cardenas as his replacement.
Equities Trading UP
Genfit SA (NASDAQ:GNFT) shares shot up 48% to $4.90 after the company, and Ipsen, announced an exclusive licensing agreement for elafibranor.
Shares of Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLPH) got a boost, shooting 29% to $3.05 after topline data from Phase 2 study (PULSE-PHPF-002) evaluating the acute hemodynamic benefit of INOpulse via right heart catheterization for pulmonary hypertension associated with sarcoidosis (PH-Sarc).
Bottomline Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:EPAY) shares were also up, gaining 15% to $56.20 after the company announced it entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Thoma Bravo for $2.6 billion.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE:BKSY) shares tumbled 15% to $5.98.
Shares of Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) were down 11% to $96.77 after the company reported Q3 earnings results and said it expects to be a few hundred vehicles short of its 2021 production target of 1,200 vehicles.
Abeona Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:ABEO) was down, falling 37% to $0.3054 after the company reported pricing of public offering of common stock and warrants.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 2% to $70.96, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,805.00.
Silver traded up 0.1% Friday to $22.49 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.30.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.55%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.61%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.14%, French CAC 40 fell 1.04% and Italy’s FTSE MIB dipped 0.69%.
The annual inflation rate in the Eurozone accelerated to 4.9% in November from 4.1% in the previous month, while construction output increased 4.4% year-over-year in October. Spain's trade deficit widened to EUR 3.4 billion in October from EUR 0.7 billion in the year-ago month.
The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany dropped to 94.7 in December, while German producer prices surged 19.2% year-over-year in November, following an 18.4% growth in the prior month. Retail sales in the UK increased 1.4% in November. Passenger car registrations in the European Union dipped 20.5% year-over-year to 713,346 units in November.
Economics
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.
San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller will speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.
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