Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Jumps Over 200 Points; Sunshine Biopharma Shares Slide

U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Dow Jones surging more than 200 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.71% to 34,828.25 while the NASDAQ fell 0.60% to 13,812.73. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.19% to 4,508.98.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 2.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Borr Drilling Limited BORR, up 12% and Frontline Ltd. FRO up 11%.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell 0.6%.

Top Headline

US wholesale inventories rose 2.5% in February, versus analysts' expectations for a 2.1% increase.

Equities Trading UP

Lyra Therapeutics, Inc. LYRA shares shot up 33% to $5.75 as the company reported a private placement for gross proceeds of $110.5 million.

Shares of TSR, Inc. TSRI got a boost, shooting 25% to $14.19.

Aterian, Inc. ATER shares were also up, gaining 11% to $4.2804 amid retail investor interest on social media.

Equities Trading DOWN

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. BCRX shares tumbled 34% to $11.77 after the company paused enrollment in BCX9930 clinical trials.

Shares of Sunshine Biopharma, Inc. SBFM were down 30% to $6.80 after the company announced a common stock offering of approximately 7.207 million shares.

LXP Industrial Trust LXP was down, falling 14% to $13.47 after the company announced it has determined to suspend its previously announced evaluation of strategic alternatives.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $96.58, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,946.70.

Silver traded up 0.3% Friday to $24.82 while copper rose 0.6% to $4.7275.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.31%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.56%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.64%. The German DAX gained 1.46%, French CAC 40 rose 1.34% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 2.13%.

Industrial production in Spain climbed 3% year-over-year in February.

Economics

US wholesale inventories rose 2.5% in February, versus analysts' expectations for a 2.1% increase.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 81,988,270 cases with around 1,011,090 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,033,060 cases and 521,600 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,094,380 COVID-19 cases with 661,030 deaths. In total, there were at least 496,735,870 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,196,240 deaths.