Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Rises Over 6%; VIZIO Shares Slide

U.S. stocks remained lower toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq dropping over 200 points on Friday.

The Dow traded down 0.78% to 33,532.64 while the NASDAQ fell 1.70% to 13,308.43. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.96% to 4,321.59.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares climbed by 1.9% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Eversource Energy ES, up 4% and American Water Works Company, Inc AWK up 3%.

In trading on Friday, financials shares fell by 1.9%.

Top Headline

The U.S. economy added 678,000 jobs in February, adding the most in seven months. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 400,000. The unemployment rate slipped to 3.8% in February from 4% in the prior month.

Equities Trading UP

agilon health, inc. AGL shares shot up 12% to $21.47 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 sales results and issued Q1 sales guidance above estimates.

Shares of Sweetgreen, Inc. SG got a boost, shooting 23% to $26.21 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 sales results and issued FY22 sales guidance above analyst estimates.

Sidus Space, Inc. SIDU shares were also up, gaining 25% to $5.62. Sidus Space established a strategic partnership with Aitech Systems to support LizzieSat Constellation.

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Equities Trading DOWN

DBV Technologies S.A. DBVT shares tumbled 23% to $1.34 after the company reported Q4 earnings results

Shares of Cambium Networks Corporation CMBM were down 22% to $21.25 after Jefferies downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold and lowered its price target from $38 to $25.

VIZIO Holding Corp. VZIO was down, falling 18% to $10.91 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 6.3% to $114.49, while gold traded up 1.5% to $1,964.50.

Silver traded up 2.1% Friday to $25.74 while copper rose 3.4% to $4.9420.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 3.56%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 3.48%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 3.63%. The German DAX dropped 4.41%, French CAC 40 dipped 4.97% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 6.24%.

The IHS Markit Italy construction PMI rose to a new series high of 68.5 in February, while German construction PMI rose to 54.9 in February. The IHS Markit French construction PMI slipped to 50 in February from 52 in the prior month, while industrial production increased 1.6% from a month ago in January.

Economics

The U.S. economy added 678,000 jobs in February, adding the most in seven months. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 400,000. The unemployment rate slipped to 3.8% in February from 4% in the prior month.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 3 to 519 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

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Check out the full economic calendar here

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 80,843,570 cases with around 981,720 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,951,550 cases and 514,620 deaths, while Brazil reported over 28,906,210 COVID-19 cases with 650,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 442,827,790 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,004,220 deaths.