Benzinga - by Lisa Levin, Benzinga Editor.
U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling more than 1% points on Friday.
The Dow traded down 0.52% to 34,727.05 while the NASDAQ fell 1.31% to 13,743.78. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.85% to 4,466.86.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Utilities shares rose by 0.1% on Friday.
In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell by 1.7%.
Top Headline
Industrial production in the U.S. rose 0.4% from a month ago in August, above market estimates of a 0.1% growth.
Equities Trading UP
Novonix Limited (NASDAQ: NVX) shares shot up 27% to $2.36 after the company announced it achieved high-performance battery grade synthetic graphite production milestones with Generation 3 Furnaces at its Tennessee facility.
Shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: IOVA) got a boost, shooting 18% to $5.47 after the company announced the FDA extended its BLA Priority Review for lifileucel amid resource constraints.
MSP Recovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIFW) shares were also up, gaining 220% to $0.1780. The company recently reported second-quarter results.
Equities Trading DOWN
RF Industries, Ltd. (NASDAQ: RFIL) shares dropped 14% to $3.20 following downbeat third-quarter results.
Shares of Volcon, Inc. (NASDAQ: VLCN) were down 22% to $0.5001 after the company reported pricing of $700,000 underwritten public offering, utilizing current remaining shelf availability.
PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTCT) was down, falling 31% to $25.85 after the company announced the CHMP has given a negative opinion on the conversion of the conditional marketing authorization to full marketing authorization of Translarna for the treatment of nmDMD.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $90.64 while gold traded up 0.8% at $1,948.90.
Silver traded up 2.2% to $23.51 on Friday while copper fell 0.5% to $3.8025.
Euro zone
European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.25% London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.68% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.13% The German DAX rose 0.51% French CAC 40 climbed 0.83%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.01%.
The Eurozone reported a trade surplus of EUR 6.5 billion in July versus a year-ago gap of EUR 36.3 billion. Hourly labor costs in the Eurozone climbed by 4.5% year-over-year in the second quarter, while wage growth eased to 4.6% year-over-year.
Italy recorded a trade surplus of EUR 6.4 billion in July versus the EUR 0.5 billion deficit in the year-ago period. The annual inflation rate in Italy eased to 5.4% in August from 5.9% in the prior month. The annual inflation rate in France accelerated to 4.9% in August from 4.3% in the previous month.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 1.10%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 0.75% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.28%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.5%.
China's retail sales climbed by 4.6% year-over-year in August, while industrial production increased by 4.5% year-over-year in August. Average new home prices in China fell by 0.1% year-over-year in August.
Economics
The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index rose to 1.9 in September versus -19 in the previous month, beating market estimates of -10.
Export prices in the U.S. rose by 1.3% month-over-month in August, while import prices increased by 0.5% month-over-month in August.
Industrial production in the U.S. rose 0.4% from a month ago in August, above market estimates of a 0.1% growth.
The University of Michigan consumer sentiment declined to 67.7 in September from 69.5 in the prior month.
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COVID-19 Update
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 108,386,680 cases with around 1,174,840 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,997,910 cases and 531,930 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 695,248,690 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,915,120 deaths.
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