Mid-afternoon market update: Dow jumps over 300 points; Standard AVB financial shares climb

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 1.25% to 27149.76 while the NASDAQ rose 2.16% to 10,902.51. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.53% to 3,296.22.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 6,979,930 cases with around 202,820 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 5,818,570 confirmed cases and 92,290 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,657,700 COVID-19 cases with 139,800 deaths. In total, there were at least 32,261,670 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 983,490 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose 2.3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included MobileIron, Inc. MOBL 20.04%, up 17%, and Ideanomics, Inc. IDEX 14.92%, up 16%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

Costco Wholesale Corporation COST 1% reported weaker-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Costco reported quarterly earnings of $3.13 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $2.83 per share. The company reported sales of $52.28 billion, surpassing expectations of $52.08 billion.

Costco’s quarterly comparable sales surged 11.4% year over year, while e-commerce sales jumped 90.6%.

Equities Trading UP

Standard AVB Financial Corp. STND 73.03% shares shot up 72% to $32.30 after the company announced it would get acquired by Dollar Mutual for $158 million in cash.

Shares of Prelude Therapeutics Incorporated NASDAQPRLD got a boost, shooting 45% to $27.48 after pricing its IPO at $19 per share.

SG Blocks, Inc. SGBX 55.92% shares were also up, gaining 38% to $2.10 after the company and Grimshaw announced plans to build modular coronavirus testing centers for Los Angeles International Airport.

Equities Trading DOWN

Sunworks, Inc. SUNW 44.02% shares tumbled 47% to $2.0748 after jumping 239% on Thursday.

Shares of Siyata Mobile Inc. NASDAQSYTA were down 27% to $4.36 after the company priced its IPO at $6 per share.

SPI Energy Co., Ltd. SPI 28.47% was down, falling 26% to $9.68, selling off from heavy momentum in recent days after the company announced a new electric vehicle subsidiary.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $40.18, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,867.90.

Silver traded down 0.2% Friday to $23.145 while copper rose 0.2% to $2.9740.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.10%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.23%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 1.1%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 1.09%, French CAC 40 fell 0.69% and London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.34%.

Consumer sentiment in the U.K. rose slightly to minus 25 in September, versus minus 27 in August.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders increased 0.4% in August, versus a revised 11.7% surge in July.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 4 to 183 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 3:10 p.m. ET.