U.S. stocks traded opened on a mixed note this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining around 80 points on Friday.
Following the market opening, the Dow traded up 0.25% to 34,795.46 while the NASDAQ fell 0.10% to 14,177.27. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.19% to 4,528.63.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Financials shares jumped by 0.9% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included X Financial (NYSE:XYF), up 4% and Medallion Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:MFIN) up 3%.
In trading on Friday, consumer discretionary shares fell 0.3%.
Top Headline
The pending home sales index fell 4.1% for February, versus analysts’ expectations for a 1% growth.
Equities Trading UP
SciSparc Ltd. (NASDAQ:SPRC) shares shot up 19% to $5.27 following an afternoon report Thursday US House Rules Committee has scheduled a Monday-afternoon meeting to prep federal marijuana legalization bill for floor action.
Shares of Forge Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:FRGE) got a boost, shooting 64% to $20.43.
Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY) shares were also up, gaining 23% to $6.53 following better-than-expected Q4 results.
Equities Trading DOWN
Icosavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICVX) shares tumbled 47% to $6.54 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. (NASDAQ:HNST) were down 29% to $4.26 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.
Orion Office REIT Inc. (NYSE:ONL) was down, falling 16% to $15.10 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $111.10, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,949.20.
Silver traded down 0.2% Friday to $25.88 while copper fell 0.3% to $4.7270.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.4%. The German DAX gained 0.6%, French CAC 40 rose 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.7%.
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 pending home sales index fell 4.1% for February, versus analysts’ expectations for a 1% growth.
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly will speak at 11:00 a.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin is set to speak at 11:30 a.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller will speak at 12:00 p.m. ET.
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 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 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.
