US Stocks Open Lower; Dow Tumbles 300 Points

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping around 300 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.98% to 30,659.18 while the NASDAQ fell 1.73% to 11,352.63. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.31% to 3,850.34.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares climbed 0.1% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Star Group, L.P. SGU, up 2% and FirstEnergy Corp. FE up 2%.

In trading on Friday, industrials shares fell by 2.1%.

Top Headline

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment rose to a five-month high of 59.5 in September from 58.2 in the previous month.

Equities Trading UP

• Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. AAOI shares shot up 33% to $3.3282 after the company announced the sale of its Chinese manufacturing facilities to Yuhan Optoelectronic Technology for $150 million.
• Shares of Alaunos Therapeutics, Inc. TCRT got a boost, shooting 23% to $2.5908 after dropping 38% on Thursday.
• JanOne Inc. JAN shares were also up, gaining 6% to $2.5014. The company executed a term sheet to acquire Soin Therapeutics LLC and its product, a patent-pending, novel formulation of low dose naltrexone.

Equities Trading DOWN

• FOXO Technologies Inc. FOXO shares tumbled 51% to $4.14.
• Shares of Aditxt, Inc. ADTX were down 52% to $5.03 after the company announced pricing of $20 million public offering of $6 per share. Dawson James downgraded Aditxt from Buy to Neutral.
• Nabriva Therapeutics plc NBRV was down, falling 30% to $4.72 following effect of 1:25 reverse stock split.

Also check out: Fear Among US Investors Is Increasing, Here's Why

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $85.74, while gold traded up 0.1% at $1,678.70.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $19.265 on Friday while copper rose 0.6% to $3.5095.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.4%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.5%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.3%. The German DAX declined 1.7%, French CAC 40 fell 1.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.2%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone increased to a record of 9.1% in August, up from 8.9% in the previous month. Passenger car registrations in the European Union jumped 4.4% year-over-year to 650,305 units during August.

The annual inflation rate in Italy accelerated to 8.4% in August, recording the highest level in over 36 years. Italy recorded a trade deficit of EUR 0.361 billion in versus a year-ago surplus of EUR 8.575 billion. Retail sales in the UK fell 1.6% month-over-month in August, recording the biggest drop so far this year.

Economics

• The University of Michigan consumer sentiment rose to a five-month high of 59.5 in September from 58.2 in the previous month.
• The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.
• The Treasury International Capital report for July will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.

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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 97,430,410 cases with around 1,078,010 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,522,770 cases and 528,270 deaths, while France reported over 34,831,390 COVID-19 cases with 154,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 616,221,110 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,526,110 deaths.