Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.85% to 34,310.56 while the NASDAQ rose 1.88% to 13,371.18. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.26% to 4,164.50.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,853,340 cases with around 584,490 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 24,046,800 cases and 262,310 deaths, while Brazil reported over 15,433,980 COVID-19 cases with 430,410 deaths. In total, there were at least 161,224,500 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,345,930 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares climbed 2.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Gevo, Inc. GEVO 20.38%, up 26%, and Uranium Energy Corp. UEC 10.76%, up 9%.
In trading on Friday, utilities shares rose by just 0.6%.
Top Headline
Walt Disney Co DIS 2.71% reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter, while sales missed expectations.
Disney's revenue in the quarter was $15.6 billion, a year-over-year decline of 13%. The revenue figure came in lower than estimates of $15.9 billion. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 79 cents in the second quarter, up from 60 cents in the prior year’s second quarter. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.28 per share.
Disney+ ended the second quarter with 103.6 million subscribers. The company had 94.9 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter.
Equities Trading UP
LifeMD, Inc. LFMD 24.96% shares shot up 23% to $7.99 after the company reported upbeat quarterly earnings and raised FY21 sales guidance.
Shares of Dillard's, Inc. DDS 19.11% got a boost, shooting 21% to $123.56 after the company reported Q1 net income of $7.25 per share, versus a year-ago net loss of $6.94 per share. Its sales also jumped to $1.33 billion from $786.70 million.
HyreCar Inc. HYRE 45.01% shares were also up, gaining 45% to $12.97 after the company reported Q1 results.
Equities Trading DOWN
Data Storage Corporation DTST 33.59% shares tumbled 33% to $5.19 after the company reported pricing of upsized $10.8 million public offering and uplisting to Nasdaq.
Shares of CorMedix Inc. CRMD 25.4% were down 26% to $5.60 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 earnings.
Solid Biosciences Inc. SLDB 21.17% was down, falling 22% to $3.47 after the company reported Q1 results.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 2% to $65.06, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,837.50.
Silver traded up 1.6% Friday to $27.480 while copper fell 0.8% to $4.6525.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.8% and the German DAX 30 gained 1.2%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 1%, French CAC 40 rose 1.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB climbed 0.9%.
Spanish consumer prices increased 2.2% year-over-year in April.
Economics
Retail sales stalled in April following a revised 10.7% jump in March.
US import prices rose 0.7% in April, while prices for US exports rose 0.8%.
US industrial production increased 0.7% for April.
US business inventories rose 0.3% for March.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index declined to 82.8 in May from 88.3 in April.
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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