Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 1.17 percent to 25,657.83 while the NASDAQ declined 1.85 percent to 7,693.65. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.31 percent to 2,817.50.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Friday afternoon, the utilities shares climbed 1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Avangrid Inc AGR 1.54% up 2 percent, and AmeriGas Partners, L.P. APU 2.25%up 3 percent.
In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 2.4 percent.
Top Headline
Hibbett Sports, Inc. HIBB 20.29% reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter and issued strong FY20 earnings outlook.
Hibbett reported quarterly earnings of $0.57 per share on sales of $306 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.38 per share on sales of $279.49 million.
Hibbett Sports expects FY20 adjusted earnings of $1.80 to $2 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $1.75 per share. The company reported the retirement of President and CEO Jeff Rosenthal.
Equities Trading UP
Immutep Limited IMMP 18.3% shares got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $2.61. Immutep has been granted a new patent entitled "Use of Recombinant LAG-3 or the Derivatives thereof for Eliciting Monocyte Immune Response" by the U.S. Patent Office. The new patent pertains to intellectual property protection for Immutep's method of treating cancer by the administration of a chemotherapy agent, and a plurality of doses of eftilagimod alpha, which is used to generate a monocyte-mediated immune response.
Shares of Hibbett Sports, Inc. HIBB 20.29% shot up 24 percent to $22.44 after the company reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter and issued strong FY20 earnings outlook.
Bio-Path Holdings Inc BPTH 20.93% shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $22.95, continuing its path of volatility, after the company's stock spiked from $2 to $73 and back to the $20 range all within the past month.
Equities Trading DOWN
Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc CNAT 53.79% shares dropped 54 percent to $1.34 following concerning results from a Phase 2b trial in NASH fibrosis. Analysts at SunTrust and H.C. Wainwright downgraded the stock.
Shares of JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. JKS 12.38% were down 12 percent to $17.17 after reporting weaker-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.
CorePoint Lodging Inc. CPLG 25.81% was down, falling around 26 percent to $10.46 after the company reported Q4 EPS of $(3.17), versus $2.07 last year, and provided FY19 FFO guidance of $1.86-$2.04 per share.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 1.8 percent to $58.89 while gold traded up 0.3 percent to $1,311.30.
Silver traded down 0.3 percent Friday to $15.395, while copper fell 2 percent to $2.8475.
European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 1.22 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.67 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.38 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.17 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.83 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.96 percent.
Economics
The IHS Markit flash manufacturing PMI dropped to 52.5 in March, compared to a reading of 53 in February. However, services PMI declined to 54.8 versus 56.
U.S. existing home sales rose 11.8 percent for February at an annual rate of 5.51 million.
U.S. wholesale inventories rose 1.2 percent for January, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent increase.
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.
The U.S. federal government posted a budget deficit of $234 billion for February, versus a $215 billion deficit in the year-ago period, the Treasury Department reported.
Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic is set to speak in San Francisco, CA at 9:30 p.m. ET.
Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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