U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 200 points on Friday.
The Dow traded up 1.02% to 32,097.43 while the NASDAQ rose 1.87% to 12,084.19. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.30% to 4,058.38.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Communication services shares jumped by 2.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Globalstar, Inc. (NYSE:GSAT), up 13% and AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AMC) up 10%.
In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.6%.
Top Headline
Wholesale inventories in the US rose by 0.6% from a month ago to $900.7 billion in July, versus an initial estimate of a 0.8% increase.
Equities Trading UP
- MOGU Inc. (NYSE:MOGU) shares shot up 34% to $2.68 after the company announced a $10 million repurchase program.
- Shares of Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZS) got a boost, shooting 19% to $184.05 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued sales guidance above estimates.
- Digital Media Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:DMS) shares were also up, gaining 77% to $2.2676 after the company received a non-binding go-private proposal from Prism Data for $2.50 per share in cash.
Equities Trading DOWN
- Immunocore Holdings plc (NASDAQ:IMCR) shares tumbled 22% to $44.70 after the company presented its Phase 1 data for TCR therapy targeting PRAME.
- Shares of Alector, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALEC) were down 12% to $9.70 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock from Overweight to Equal-Weight and lowered its price target from $27 to $13.
- NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE:NBY) was down, falling 15% to $0.1754. NovaBay Pharmaceuticals entered into agreements for a private placement and warrant reprice transactions to raise up to $5.3 million.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 3.1% to $86.16, while gold traded up 0.3% at $1,725.40.
Silver traded up 1.1% to $18.65 on Friday while copper rose 0.6% to $3.5490.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.57%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.38%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.52%. The German DAX gained 1.39%, French CAC 40 rose 1.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.85%.
Industrial production in France dropped by 1.6% from a month ago in July versus a revised 1.2% increase in June, while industrial production in Spain gained by 5.3% year-over-year in July.
Economics
- Wholesale inventories in the US rose by 0.6% from a month ago to $900.7 billion in July, versus an initial estimate of a 0.8% increase.
- The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the recent 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 96,959,160 cases with around 1,074,780 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,484,720 cases and 528,120 deaths, while France reported over 34,663,100 COVID-19 cases with 154,430 deaths. In total, there were at least 612,754,590 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,512,830 deaths.
