Mid-afternoon market update: Dow tumbles over 300 points, NextPlay Technologies shares gain

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.93% to 35,778.63 while the NASDAQ fell 0.01% to 14,804.95. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.40% to 4,640.37.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 65,236,470 cases with around 869,210 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 36,582,120 cases and 485,350 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,815,820 COVID-19 cases with 620,600 deaths. In total, there were at least 321,162,990 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,540,920 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 1.3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR +11.33%, up 7% and Precision Drilling Corporation PDS +10.19% up 7%.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell by 1.8%.

Top Headline

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM -6.54% reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

JPMorgan posted quarterly earnings of $3.33 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $3.01 per share. The company’s quarterly revenue came in nearly flat at $30.3 billion.

Equities Trading UP

ATI Physical Therapy, Inc. ATIP +22.7% shares shot up 24% to $3.76 after Jefferies upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy and raised its price target from $3.50 to $5.

Shares of NextPlay Technologies, Inc. NXTP +16.46% got a boost, shooting 13% to $0.7650 following Q3 results. NextPlay Technologies reported quarterly gross profit of $2.2 million and sales of $4.2 million.

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited MLCO +15.44% shares were also up, gaining 15% to $10.99. Shares of Macau casino stocks traded higher following the release of a new Macau gaming bill that was mostly in-line with expectations but that had at least a couple of bullish surprises for investors.

Equities Trading DOWN

FTC Solar, Inc. FTCI -16.73% shares tumbled 14% to $5.24 after B of A Securities downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underperform and lowered its price target from $9 to $5.

Shares of Perella Weinberg Partners PWP -9.56% were down 10% to $11.52 after the company announced a public offering of 3,500,000 shares of common stock.

Cerberus Cyber Sentinel Corp CISO -88.23% was down, falling 21% to $5.69. Cerberus Cyber Sentinel priced its initial public offering of 2,000,000 shares stock at a price of $5.00 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.3% to $83.15, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,817.50.

Silver traded down 1.1% Friday to $22.915 while copper fell 2.6% to $4.4270.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 1.01%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.28%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.12%. The German DAX dropped 0.93%, French CAC 40 fell 0.81% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.08%.

German economy expanded by 2.7% in 2021, rebounding from a 4.6% contraction in 2020. French government budget deficit widened to EUR 181.02 billion in January-November, compared to a EUR 176.85 billion gap in the year-ago period, while annual inflation rate was confirmed at 2.8% year-over-year for December. Spain's consumer prices increased 6.5% year-over-year in December.

UK’s gross domestic product increased by 1.1% during the three months to November, while industrial production rose 1% from a month ago in November. UK’s exports of goods and services increased 4.6% from a month ago to a 22-month high of GBP 57.1 billion in November, while imports rose by 3.8% to an 11-month high of GBP 56.4 billion.

Economics

US retail sales fell 1.9% for December.

The price index for US imports fell 0.2% in December, while prices for US exports declined 1.8%.

US industrial production fell 0.1% for December.

US business inventories increased 1.3% for November.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index dropped to 68.8 in January, versus market estimates of 70.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 11 to 492 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.