Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.77% to 34,373.98 while the NASDAQ fell 2.8% to 14,950.19. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.52% to 4,507.37.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 49,716,820 cases with around 806,390 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,615,750 cases and 470,110 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,118,780 COVID-19 cases with 615,220 deaths. In total, there were at least 264,609,610 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,253,110 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Consumer staples shares climbed 0.8% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Tyson Foods, Inc. TSN +2.17% (Get Free Alerts for TSN), up 3% and Sendas Distribuidora S.A. ASAI +5.68% (Get Free Alerts for ASAI) up 6%.
In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell 2%.
Top Headline
Big Lots, Inc. BIG +4.25% reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, but issued weak earnings guidance for FY21.
Big Lots reported a quarterly loss of $0.14 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of a loss of $0.16 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.34 billion, versus expectations of $1.32 billion.
Big Lots said it sees Q4 EPS of $2.05-$2.20 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $2.39 per share. The company also projects FY21 EPS of $5.70-$5.85 per share, versus expectations of $5.97 per share. The company also reported a $250 million buyback plan.
Equities Trading UP
Celyad Oncology SA CYAD +40.45% shares shot up 40% to $5.11. Celyad Oncology announced a private placement worth $32.5 million (about €28.7 million) with Fortress Investment Group. The offering includes the private placement of 6.5 million shares and will close by December 8.
Shares of Marvell Technology, Inc. MRVL +17.68% got a boost, shooting 17% to $83.10 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 results and issued Q4 guidance above estimates. Goldman Sachs and Cowen & Co. upgraded the stock.
Longeveron Inc. LGVN +34.89% shares were also up, gaining 30% to $23.31. The FDA granted Orphan Drug designation to Longeveron’s lead investigational product Lomecel-B for Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).
Equities Trading DOWN
Asana, Inc. ASAN -27% shares tumbled 27% to $66.16 after the company reported Q3 earnings and issued guidance.
Shares of DocuSign, Inc. DOCU -40.52% were down 41% to $138.02 after the company issued Q4 2021 and FY22 revenue guidance below estimates. Several analysts also downgraded the stock.
Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. ESPR -40.19% was down, falling 41% to $5.30. Esperion Therapeutics priced its previously announced underwritten public offering of 32.14 million shares and short-term warrants to purchase up to 32.14 million shares at $7/share and accompanying warrant.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 2.7% to $68.28, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,772.10.
Silver traded down 0.6% Friday to $22.185 while copper fell 0.5% to $4.2790.
Euro zone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.59%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.78% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.70%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.11%, French CAC 40 slipped 0.56% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.37%.
The IHS Markit Eurozone services PMI was revised lower to 55.9 in November versus a preliminary reading of 56.6. The IHS Markit France services PMI climbed to 57.4 in November from 56.6 in the prior month, while industrial production increased 0.9% in October. France's government budget deficit increased to EUR 171.6 billion in January-October of 2021, compared to EUR 159.9 billion in the year-ago period.
German services PMI was fell to 52.7 in November from a preliminary estimates of 53.4. Spain’s services PMI climbed to 59.8 in November from 56.6 a month ago, while Italy’s services PMI increased to 55.9 in November from 52.4 in the prior month.
Economics
The US economy added only 210,000 jobs in November, while unemployment rate dropped by 0.4 percentage points to 4.2% in November.
The IHS Markit services PMI was revised higher to 58.0 in November versus a preliminary reading of 57.0.
US factory orders rose 1% month-over-month in October.
The ISM non-manufacturing PMI rose to 69.1 in November from 66.7 in the prior month.
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.
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