Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.40% to 31,619.08 while the NASDAQ rose 0.67% to 13,958.68. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.33% to 3,926.90.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 27,896,700 cases with around 493,110 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,963,390 confirmed cases and 156,110 deaths, while Brazil reported over 10,030,620 COVID-19 cases with 243,450 deaths. In total, there were at least 110,394,360 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,443,540 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Industrials shares rose 1.6% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Energous Corporation WATT, up 33%, and The ExOne Company XONE, up 23%.
In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell by 0.7%.
Top Headline
Deere & Company DE reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.
Deere reported quarterly earnings of $3.87 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.16 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $9.11 billion, versus expectations of $7.21 billion.
Equities Trading UP
Vaccinex, Inc. VCNX shares shot up 130% to $6.61 in reaction to multi-project deals signed with two undisclosed prominent pharmaceutical companies, utilizing Vaccinex's ActivMAb, antibody discovery, and novel viral display platform for antibody discovery against complex antigens such as GPCRs and ion channels.
Shares of Evolus, Inc. EOLS got a boost, shooting 79% to $12.79. AbbVie, Evolus, and Medytox reported resolution of intellectual property litigation.
JMP Group LLC JMP shares were also up, gaining 38% to $6.87 after the company swung to a profit in the fourth quarter.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
PDF Solutions, Inc. PDFS shares tumbled 11% to $18.96 after reporting a loss for the fourth quarter.
Shares of Rackspace Technology, Inc. RXT were down 12% to $21.91 after the company issued FY21 earnings guidance below estimates.
Conduent Incorporated CNDT was down, falling 13% to $5.03 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $59.85, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,781.20.
Silver traded up 1.7% Friday to $27.53 while copper rose 4.2% to $4.0650.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.6%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.15% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.82%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.83%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.32% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.97%.
The Eurozone manufacturing PMI climbed to 57.7 in February from 54.8 in January, while services PMI fell to 44.7 from 45.4. Eurozone’s current account surplus increased to EUR 51.9 billion in December from EUR 33.4 billion in the year-ago month.
The annual inflation rate in France rose to 0.6% in January, while German producer prices rose 0.9% year-on-year in January. Retail sales in the UK tumbled 8.2% in January.
Economics
The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI declined to 58.5 in February from 59.2 in January, while services PMI climbed to 58.9 in February from 58.3 in the prior month.
US existing home sales rose 0.6% to 6.69 million units in January.
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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