Mid-day market update: Markets mixed, Novan shares spike higher

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.07% to 34,442.46 while the NASDAQ rose 0.09% to 14,033.42. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.01% to 4,239.73.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,426,990 cases with around 598,750 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 29,274,820 cases and 363,070 deaths, while Brazil reported over 17,210,960 COVID-19 cases with 482,010 deaths. In total, there were at least 174,909,510 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,774,560 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed 0.4% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included UP Fintech Holding Limited TIGR 10.85%, up 7%, and Lemonade, Inc. LMND 4.74%, up 4%.

In trading on Friday, health care shares fell 0.9%.

Top Headline

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 86.4 in June from 82.9 in May. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 84.

Equities Trading UP

Novan, Inc. NOVN 61.24% shares shot up 70% to $15.35 after the company reported the B-SIMPLE4 pivotal Phase 3 trial of SB206 achieved statistical significance for the primary endpoint and no serious adverse events were reported.

Shares of Janux Therapeutics, Inc. NASDAQJANX got a boost, shooting 47% to $25.00 as the company priced its IPO at $17 per share.

Aptinyx Inc. APTX 15.73% shares were also up, gaining 45% to $4.64 on continued strength. The stock spiked Thursday after traders circulate a TipRanks titled '2 "Strong Buy" Penny Stocks That Could Rally to $10 (or More)' mentioning the stock.

Equities Trading DOWN

Recon Technology, Ltd. RCON 54.67% shares tumbled 55% to $5.75.
Recon Technology reports its Beijing BHD Petrolume subsidiary signed 2 contracts with Sinopec's North China E&P Co.

Shares of Orphazyme A/S ORPH 51.55% were down 45% to $11.51 after jumping 302% on Thursday. On May 7, in the latest press statement put out by Orphazyme, it said its application for arimoclomol, which will be branded as MIPLYFFA for Niemann-Pick disease type C, is under priority review with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — with the expected Prescription Drug User Fee Act action date of June 17.

Curis, Inc. CRIS 34.98% was down, falling 35% to $8.09 after the company reported updated data from its ongoing Phase 1/2 study of CA-4948 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $70.77, while gold traded down 0.9% to $1,880.00.

Silver traded up 0.5% Friday to $28.175 while copper rose 1.2% to $4.5410.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.7%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.8% and the German DAX 30 rose 0.8%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.7%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.8% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.3%.

British gross domestic product expanded by 1.5% during the three months to April, while trade deficit narrowed to GBP 0.9 billion in April compared to GBP 2 billion a month ago. Industrial production in the UK fell 1.3% in April.

Wholesale prices in Germany climbed 9.7% year-over-year, notching the biggest surge since July 2008.