Benzinga | Dec 18, 2020 12:25PM EST

Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Rises 1.5%; Mesoblast Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.53% to 30,142.54 while the NASDAQ fell 0.29% to 12,727.34. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.48% to 3,704.47.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 17,213,880 cases with around 310,790 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 9,979,440 confirmed cases and 144,780 deaths, while Brazil reported over 7,110,430 COVID-19 cases with 184,820 deaths. In total, there were at least 75,075,060 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,664,760 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose by 0.1% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Korea Electric Power Corporation (NYSE:KEP), up 6%, and Enel Americas SA (NYSE:ENIA), up 5%.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares dipped 1.4%.

Top Headline

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

Darden posted quarterly earnings of $0.74 per share, beating analysts' estimates of $0.71 per share. The company's quarterly sales came in at $1.66 billion, versus expectations of $1.68 billion.



Equities Trading UP

Exela Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:XELA) shares shot up 41% to $0.512. Exela Technologies secured a term loan of $145 million.

Shares of CURO Group Holdings Corp (NYSE:CURO) got a boost, shooting 91% to $16.80. Katapult will go public through merger with FinServ Acquisition Corp. Katapult is 40% owned by CURO Group.

Mereo BioPharma Group plc (NASDAQ:MREO) shares were also up, gaining 88% to $4.16. Mereo BioPharma and Ultragenyx announced a license and collaboration agreement for setrusumab, a monoclonal antibody in clinical development for osteogenesis imperfecta.

Equities Trading DOWN

Mesoblast Limited (NASDAQ:MESO) shares tumbled 34% to $8.99. Mesoblast said Data Safety Monitoring Board that performed a third interim analysis of data from a study of remestemcel-L in ventilator-dependent patients with moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome due to COVID-19 infection said the trial is not likely to meet the 30-day mortality reduction endpoint at the planned 300 patient enrolment.

Shares of Scopus BioPharma Inc. (NASDAQ:SCPS) were down 36% to $21.86 after climbing 474% on Thursday. Scopus BioPharma's filing showed registration for 500,000 share common stock offering. Scopus Biopharma priced its IPO at $5.5 per share.

Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:APDN) was down, falling 16% to $5.24 after the company reported downbeat quarterly results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $49.09, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,890.20.

Silver traded down 0.4% Friday to $26.075 while copper rose 0.6% to $3.6245.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.27%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.25%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.11%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 slipped 0.06%, French CAC 40 declined 0.37% and London's FTSE 100 fell 0.21%.

German producer prices dropped 0.5% year-over-year in November following a 0.7% decline in the previous month, while retail sales in the UK dropped 3.8% in November.

Economics

The current account gap increased by 10.6% to $178.5 billion in the third quarter.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6% for November.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.