Benzinga | Aug 21, 2020 02:43PM EDT

Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Jumps 150 Points; Cato Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.55% to 27892.13 while the NASDAQ rose 0.29% to 11298.02. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.23% to 3,393.30.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 5,576,080 cases with around 174,290 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 3,501,970 COVID-19 cases with 112,300 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 2,905,820 confirmed cases and 54,840 deaths. In total, there were at least 22,707,350 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 794,250 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares gained 0.9% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included AudioEye, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEYE), up 14%, and BigCommerce Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIGC), up 12%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell by 0.7%.

Top Headline

Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter and raised its full-year earnings outlook.

Deere reported quarterly earnings of $2.57 per share, surpassing analysts' estimates of $1.26 per share. Equipment sales came in at $7.9 billion, exceeding expectations of $6.70 billion.

Deere said it now projects full-year net income of around $2.25 billion, versus previous forecast of $1.6 billion to $2 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Hancock Jaffe Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:HJLI) shares shot up 112% to $0.5978 after the company announced two additional VenoValve patients from its first-in-man clinical study in Columbia reached the one-year milestone following VenoValve surgery and chronic venous insufficiency significantly improved in both patients.

Shares of The Buckle, Inc. (NYSE:BKE) got a boost, shooting 19% to $19.40 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 sales.

StealthGas Inc. (NASDAQ:GASS) shares were also up, gaining 15% to $2.9699 after the company reported strong Q2 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Avinger, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGR) shares tumbled 22% to $0.4729 after the company priced its 11.06 million share public offering of common stock at $0.47 per share.

Shares of Cato Corp (NYSE:CATO) were down 23% to $6.34 after the company swung to a loss in the second quarter.

Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ:GEVO) was down, falling 21% to $1.435 after the company reported a 38.4 million share registered direct offering priced at $1.30 per share. Gevo shares jumped 233% on Thursday after the company announced it has exceeded $1.5 billion in long-term revenue contracts after entering into a binding Renewable Hydrocarbons Purchase and Sale Agreement with Trafigura Trading.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.8% to $42.05, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,945.00.

Silver traded down 1.5% Friday to $26.75, while copper fell 1.9% to $2.9195.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.15%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.16%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.36%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.51%, French CAC 40 fell 0.3% and UK shares fell 0.19%.

Economics

The IHS Markit composite PMI climbed to 54.7 in August versus 50.3 in the earlier month. US manufacturing PMI rose to 53.6 from 50.9, while services PMI gained to 54.8 from 50.0.

U.S. existing home sales surged 24.7% to an annual rate of 5.86 million units in July.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 11 to 183 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.