Mid-afternoon market update: Dow surges 200 points, Grid Dynamics shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.57% to 36,331.86 while the NASDAQ rose 0.20% to 15,972.41. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.40% to 4,698.70.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 47,187,250 cases with around 772,310 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,332,400 cases and 459,870 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,849,130 COVID-19 cases with 608,710 deaths. In total, there were at least 249,461,040 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,047,620 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 1.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Borr Drilling Limited BORR +17.14% (Get Free Alerts for BORR), up 17% and Select Energy Services, Inc. WTTR +11.15% (Get Free Alerts for WTTR) up 15%.

In trading on Friday, health care shares fell 1.7%.

Top Headline

The US economy added 531,000 jobs in October, above analysts’ expectations of 450,000. The US unemployment rate also dropped to 4.6% in October, notching the lowest level since March 2020.

Equities Trading UP

Mainz Biomed B.V. NASDAQMYNZ shares shot up 120% to $11.00. Mainz Biomed priced its initial public offering of 2 million ordinary shares at $5, the middle of the estimated price range of $4-$6, for raising gross proceeds of $10 million.

Shares of Grid Dynamics Holdings, Inc. GDYN +26.24% got a boost, shooting 25% to $36.57 following upbeat Q3 results.

ReWalk Robotics Ltd. RWLK +22.49% shares were also up, gaining 27% to $1.6399 after the company announced its ReBoot device has been granted designation as a Breakthrough Device by the FDA.

Equities Trading DOWN

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. DCPH -74.96% shares tumbled 75% to $9.05 after announcing disappointing results from the INTRIGUE Phase 3 study of Qinlock in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) previously treated with Novartis AG's Gleevec (imatinib). The study did not meet the primary endpoint of improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with the standard of care Pfizer’s Sutent (sunitinib).

Shares of Evaxion Biotech A/S EVAX -44.6% were down 44% to $7.09 after the company priced 3.43 million ADS offering at $7 per ADS.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. EBS -42.01% was down, falling 41% to $30.83 after reporting a loss for the third quarter.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.2% to $81.31, while gold traded up 1.2% to $1,815.80.

Silver traded up 1% Friday to $24.15 while copper rose 0.2% to $4.3295.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.05%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.01% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.15%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.33%, French CAC 40 rose 0.76% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 1%.

The IHS Markit Eurozone construction PMI climbed to 51.2 in October from 50 in the prior month. France construction PMI climbed to 50.3 from 48.9, while industrial production fell by 1.3% in September.

The IHS Markit Germany construction PMI rose to 47.7 in October from 47.1 in September, while industrial production fell 1.1% in September. Spain's industrial production growth eased to 1.2% year-over-year in September. The Halifax house price index in the UK surged 8.1% from a year ago in October.

Economics

The US economy added 531,000 jobs in October, above analysts’ expectations of 450,000. The US unemployment rate also dropped to 4.6% in October, notching the lowest level since March 2020.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 6 to 450 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Data on consumer credit for September will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.