Benzinga | Jul 17, 2020 02:43PM EDT

Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Rises 40 Points; NIO Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.14% to 26698.32 while the NASDAQ rose 0.38% to 10,514. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.28% to 3,224.63.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 3,576,430 cases with around 138,360 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 2,012,150 COVID-19 cases with 76,680 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 1,003,830 confirmed cases and 25,600 deaths. In total, there were at least 13,830,930 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 590,600 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors Utilities shares rose 2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras S.A. - Eletrobras (NYSE:EBR), up 11%, and Avangrid, Inc.. (NYSE:AGR), up 4%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell 1.5%. Top Headline Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) reported mixed results for its second quarter.

The company reported downbeat quarterly earnings, while sales exceeded views. Netflix issued weak outlook for new subscriber additions and also named 20-year Netflix veteran Ted Sarandos to the role of co-CEO alongside co-founder Reed Hastings..

Equities Trading UP RumbleON, Inc. (NASDAQ:RMBL) shares shot up 111% to $22.60 after the company announced a dealer-centric pilot program with CarGurus. Shares of Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) got a boost, shooting 169% to $12.98 after the company announced it raised $200 million in a private placement at $4.50 per share.

ALX Oncology Limited (NASDAQ:ALXO) shares were also up, gaining 65% to $31.40 after the company priced its 8.5 million share IPO at $19 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ:AEHR) shares tumbled 15% to $2.0841 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q4 revenue. The company expects to be profitable for the fiscal year and projects full-year revenue of $25 million to $28 million.

Shares of Sintx Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:SINT) were down 9% to $2.065 after the company priced its 1.5 million share offering at $2 per share.

NIO Inc. (NYSE:NIO) was down, falling 17% to $10.75 after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock from Neutral to Sell and announced a $7 price target.

Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $40.71, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,811.80.

Silver traded up 1% Friday to $19.76, while copper rose 0.1% to $2.9045.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.16%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.46%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 0.31%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.35%, French CAC 40 fell 0.31% and UK shares rose 0.63%.

Economics

Housing starts climbed 17.3% to an annualized rate of 1,186 thousand in June, while building permits gained 2.1% to an annual rate of 1.241 million.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index dropped to 73.2 in July versus 78.1 in June.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 1 to 180 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.