Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles Over 600 Points; Bellerophon Therapeutics Shares Surge

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 3.1% to 19,464.34 while the NASDAQ fell 2.01% to 7,007.15. The S&P also rose, gaining 3.07% to 2,335.31.

U.S. reported a total of 14,000 coronavirus cases with around 200 deaths. Italy reported a total of at least 41,000 confirmed cases and 3,400 deaths, while Iran confirmed a total of over 18,400 coronavirus cases. Mainland China reported no new domestic coronavirus case for the second consecutive day. In total, there are at least 245,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 10,000 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares slipped by just 0.1% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Retail Properties of America, Inc. RPAI 27.93%, up 37%, and RPT Realty RPT 15.77%, up 23%.

In trading on Friday, consumer staples shares dipped 4%.

Top Headline

Hibbett Sports, Inc. HIBB 1.23% reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales exceeded estimates.

Hibbett posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $0.51 per share, missing analysts' estimates of $0.62 per share. The company's sales came in at $313 million, exceeding analysts' estimates of $303.63 million.

Hibbett Sports reported a 4% year-over-year rise in Q4 same-store sales.

Equities Trading UP

Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. BLPH 419.47% shares shot up 447% to $18.56 after the company reported that the FDA granted emergency expanded access for INOpulse for the treatment of coronavirus infection.

Shares of Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. TNXP 82.27% got a boost, shooting 93% to $1.09 after the company's 8-K showed it would present certain info related to the TNX-1800 for a potential coronavirus vaccine to the World Health Organization on Friday.

GenMark Diagnostics, Inc. GNMK 27.36% shares were also up, gaining 28% to $5.27 after the company received FDA emergency use authorization for its ePlex SARS-CoV-2 test. The test is available in hospitals and labs across the U.S. and in more than 30 countries.

Equities Trading DOWN

Biomerica, Inc. BMRA 49.19% shares tumbled 53% to $7.48 after surging over 55% on Thursday.

Shares of Waitr Holdings Inc. WTRH 48.47% were down 36% to $1.6550 after rising around 32% on Thursday.

Blue Apron Holdings, Inc. APRN 30.85% was down, falling 22% to $11.19. Blue Apron reported a sharp increase in demand.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 21.3% to $19.84, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,482.20.

Silver traded up 2.2% Friday to $12.395, while copper fell 2% to $2.1415.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 1.82% the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.74%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 1.71%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 3.7%, and the French CAC 40 rose 5.01% while UK shares rose 0.76%.

Economics

US existing home sales rose 6.5% to an annual rate of 5.77 million units in February.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs declined by 19 to 664 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.