Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls 30 Points; Cutera Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded lower toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping more than 100 points on Friday.

The Dow traded down 0.09% to 34,677.25 while the NASDAQ fell 0.77% to 14,082.29. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.07% to 4,516.78.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NextDecade Corporation NEXT, up 30% and Tellurian Inc. TELL up 18%.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell 0.9%.

Top Headline

The pending home sales index fell 4.1% for February, versus analysts’ expectations for a 1% growth.

Equities Trading UP

Clever Leaves Holdings Inc. CLVR shares shot up 99% to $3.13 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 sales results and reaffirmed FY22 guidance.

Shares of Cutera, Inc. CUTR got a boost, shooting 21% to $54.978 after the company announced it received FDA 510(k) clearance of AviClear, a designation for the treatment of mild, moderate, and severe acne.

Joby Aviation, Inc. JOBY shares were also up, gaining 11% to $5.93 following better-than-expected Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Icosavax, Inc. ICVX shares tumbled 65% to $4.3950 after the company reported the results from its Phase 1/2 trial for IVX-441 against SARS-CoV-2 showed the level of response was lower than expected and inconsistent with known data on the company's platform and VLP technology.

Shares of The Honest Company, Inc. HNST were down 21% to $4.75 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.

MEI Pharma, Inc. MEIP was down, falling 64% to $0.6525 after the company provided an update on its PI3K inhibitor drug candidate zandelisib following a meeting with the FDA. The company does not plan to submit an FDA marketing application based on the single arm Phase 2 TIDAL study, following discouragement from the agency. Several analysts also downgraded the stock.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $113.13, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,953.10.

Silver traded down 1.3% Friday to $25.59 while copper fell 1% to $4.6965.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.11%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.21%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.31%. The German DAX gained 0.22%, French CAC 40 slipped 0.03% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.64%.

Loans to households in the Eurozone rose 4.4% year-over-year in February. Spanish gross domestic product expanded by 2.2% on quarter during the fourth quarter, while producer price inflation increased to a new record high of 40.7% year-over-year in February from 35.7% in the previous month.

Retail sales in the UK dropped 0.3% in February following a 1.9% growth in January, while GfK consumer confidence indicator declined to its lowest level in 16 months in March.

Economics

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index was revised lower to 59.4 in March from a preliminary reading of 59.7, recording the weakest reading since August 2011.

The pending home sales index fell 4.1% for February, versus analysts’ expectations for a 1% growth.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 7 to 531 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 81,565,950 cases with around 1,002,250 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,016,370 cases and 516,780 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,767,680 COVID-19 cases with 658,360 deaths. In total, there were at least 478,323,110 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,134,520 deaths.