U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining around 100 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.30% to 34,602.56 while the NASDAQ rose 0.36% to 13,797.99. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.34% to 4,466.41.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 1.5% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, industrials shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

Wholesale inventories in the U.S. declined by 0.2% from a month ago in July versus the preliminary estimate of a 0.1% fall and compared to a 0.7% decline in the previous month.

Equities Trading UP

Biocept, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOC) shares shot up 77% to $1.4897 after the company announced non-exclusive licensing agreement for CNSide with Plus Therapeutics.

Shares of Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWBI) got a boost, shooting 13% to $11.90 after the company reported a second-quarter earnings beat and issued strong guidance.

Lantronix, Inc. (NASDAQ:LTRX) shares were also up, gaining 22% to $4.86 following better-than-expected quarterly sales.

Equities Trading DOWN

Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:GROM) shares dropped 47% to $2.13 after the company reported pricing of $3.0 million public offering.

Shares of Rent the Runway, Inc. (NASDAQ:RENT) were down 28% to $0.9742 after the company reported downbeat second-quarter sales and issued weak third-quarter forecast.

Arqit Quantum Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQQ) was down, falling 31% to $0.6590 after the company reported a $16.2 million registered direct offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $87.56 while gold traded up 0.5% at $1,951.20.

Silver traded up 0.5% to $23.365 on Friday while copper fell 1.1% to $3.7210.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.11% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.35% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.46% The German DAX rose 0.05% French CAC 40 rose 0.5%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.22%.

Industrial production in Spain declined by 1.8% year-over-year in July following a revised 3.2% fall in the prior month. French industrial output increased by 0.8% month-over-month in July versus a 0.9% decline in June.

Germany’s consumer price inflation rate eased to 6.1% year-over-year in August from 6.2% in the earlier month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 1.16% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.18%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.5%.

The gauge for Japan's service sector sentiment fell to 53.6 in August from 54.4 a month ago. Japanese current account surplus widened to JPY 2.772 trillion in July from JPY 1.509 trillion in the previous month, while the country’s economy expanded 1.2% quarter-over-quarter in the second quarter.

Economics

Wholesale inventories in the U.S. declined by 0.2% from a month ago in July versus the preliminary estimate of a 0.1% fall and compared to a 0.7% decline in the previous month.

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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 108,268,240 cases with around 1,174,460 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,997,460 cases and 531,930 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 695,034,570 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,913,060 deaths.