Benzinga | Oct 8, 2021 02:36PM EDT

Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges 80 Points; ChemoCentryx Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.24% to 34,835.06 while the NASDAQ fell 0.13% to 14,635.04. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.13% to 4,405.69.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 44,160,450 cases with around 710,180 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,915,560 cases and 450,120 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,532,550 COVID-19 cases with 599,810 deaths. In total, there were at least 236,882,420 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,836,830 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 2.9% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Hallador Energy Company (NASDAQ:HNRG), up 18% and Goodrich Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:GDP) up 8%.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

The US economy added 194,000 jobs in September, the lowest so far this year. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting for a 500,000 gain. The US unemployment rate, however, declined to 4.8% in September from 5.2%.



Equities Trading UP

ChemoCentryx, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCXI) shares shot up 99% to $39.00. The FDA approved ChemoCentryx's Tavneos (avacopan) as an adjunctive treatment for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated vasculitis (ANCA-associated vasculitis or ANCA vasculitis).

Shares of Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ:AEHR) got a boost, shooting 19% to $19.82. Craig-Hallum raised the price target on Aehr Test Systems to $31 from $12, implying an 86.1% upside, and reiterated a Buy.

ReShape Lifesciences Inc. (NASDAQ:RSLS) shares were also up, gaining 22% to $3.0150. Maxim Group initiated coverage on Reshape Lifesciences with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $8.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALLO) shares tumbled 45% to $13.38 after the company reported the FDA placed a hold on the company's AlloCAR T clinical trials.

Shares of Cellectis S.A. (NASDAQ:CLLS) were down 23% to $9.25. Baird downgraded Cellectis from Outperform to Neutral and lowered the price target from $39 to $10.

Agile Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AGRX) was down, falling 26% to $0.7011 as the company reported pricing of $22,666,650 underwritten public offering of common stock and warrants.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $79.45, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,760.10.

Silver traded up 0.4% Friday to $22.75 while copper rose 0.7% to $4.2725.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.28%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.09% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.29%. Meanwhile, the London's FTSE 100 gained 0.25%, French CAC 40 fell 0.61% and Italy's FTSE MIB gained 0.23%.

German current account surplus shrank to EUR 11.8 billion in August from EUR 16.7 billion in the year-ago month, while trade surplus narrowed to (euro)10.7 billion from (euro)11.9 billion.

Economics

The US economy added 194,000 jobs in September, the lowest so far this year. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting for a 500,000 gain. The US unemployment rate, however, declined to 4.8% in September from 5.2%.

US wholesale inventories increased 1.2% to $731.1 billion in August.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs climbed by 5 to 433 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Check out the full economic calendar here