Mid-afternoon market update: Dow jumps 400 points, Alcoa shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 1.15% to 35,313.27 while the NASDAQ rose 0.49% to 14,895.49. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.81% to 4,474.11.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 45,639,010 cases with around 741,890 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,037,590 cases and 451,840 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,612,230 COVID-19 cases with 602,200 deaths. In total, there were at least 240,474,470 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,899,160 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financials shares gained by 2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included XP Inc. XP +7.96% (Get Free Alerts for XP), up 9% and Mogo Inc. MOGO +9.05% (Get Free Alerts for MOGO) up 9%.

In trading on Friday, consumer staples shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS +3.7% reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter on Friday.

Goldman Sachs reported quarterly earnings of $14.93 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $10.11 per share. The bank reported quarterly revenue of $13.61 billion, versus analysts’ estimates of $11.67 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Limelight Networks, Inc. LLNW +14.23% shares shot up 11% to $2.7950. Craig-Hallum upgraded Limelight Networks from Hold to Buy and raised the price target from $3.5 to $4.

Shares of Alcoa Corporation AA +14.88% got a boost, shooting 16% to $56.45 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 results. The company also announced a $500 million buyback and initiated a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share.

Hut 8 Mining Corp. HUT +16.57% shares were also up, gaining 16% to $12.20 amid an increase in the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Movement has been attributed to speculation of SEC approval of a Bitcoin futures ETF. DA Davidson initiated coverage on Hut 8 Mining with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $20.

Equities Trading DOWN

Duck Creek Technologies, Inc. DCT -24.05% shares tumbled 23% to $35.53 after the company reported Q4 results and issued FY22 sales guidance below estimates. JP Morgan downgraded Duck Creek Technologies from Overweight to Neutral and announced a $50 price target.

Shares of The Very Good Food Company Inc. VGFC -21.44% were down 21% to $1.81 after the company priced 15 million unit offering at $2 per unit.

Siyata Mobile Inc. SYTA -18.01% was down, falling 17% to $2.89 after reporting Q2 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $82.18, while gold traded down 1.6% to $1,769.20.

Silver traded down 0.5% Friday to $23.36 while copper rose 2.2% to $4.7315.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.74%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.81% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.81%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.37%, French CAC 40 rose 0.63% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.81%.

The Eurozone trade surplus shrank to EUR 4.8 billion in August compared to EUR 14.0 billion in the year-ago period, while passenger car registrations dipped by 23.1% year-over-year to 718,598 thousand units in September.

Italy’s trade surplus shrank to EUR 1.316 billion in August from EUR 3.929 billion in the year-ago month, while annual inflation rate increased to 2.5% in September from 2% in August. French consumer price inflation rate rose to 2.2% year-over-year in September from a preliminary reading of 2.1%.

Economics

Retail sales rose 0.7 % in September, following a revised 0.9% growth in August.

The New York Empire State manufacturing index declined 15 points to a reading of 19.8 in October.

The price index for US imports rose 0.4% in September, while export prices rose 0.1% over a month ago in September.

US business inventories rose 0.6% for August.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index declined to 71.4 in October from 72.8 in September.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 12 to 445 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.