Crude Oil Edges Lower; US Consumer Sentiment Falls In March

Benzinga · Mar 15 12:05

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index falling over 100 points on Friday.

The Dow traded down 0.37% to 38,761.74 while the NASDAQ fell 0.95% to 15,974.83. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.62% to 5,118.35.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 0.6% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell by 0.9%.

Top Headline

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment fell to 76.5 in March, recording the lowest reading in three months, compared to 76.9 in February.

Equities Trading UP

Verb Technology Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:VERB) shares shot up 202% to $0.4221. VERB's MARKET.live launched Facebook and Instagram social shopping technology integration.

Shares of Cardlytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDLX) got a boost, surging 54% to $12.59 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.

American Vanguard Corporation (NYSE:AVD) shares were also up, gaining 24% to $13.11 following fourth-quarter financial results.

Equities Trading DOWN

C3is Inc. (NASDAQ:CISS) shares dropped 65% to $0.0280 after the company announced pricing of a $6 million underwritten public offering.

Shares of SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLS) were down 32% to $1.06. SELLAS Life Sciences Group announced a $20 million registered direct offering and concurrent private placement of 13,029316 shares each for combined purchase price of $1.535/share.

Immuneering Corporation (NASDAQ:IMRX) was down, falling 24% to $2.2097 after multiple analysts downgraded the stock following Thursday data from the company's Phase 1 portion of its Phase 1/2a clinical trial of IMM-1-104 in advanced RAS-mutant solid tumors.

Also Check This Out: Wall Street's Most Accurate Analysts Say Hold These 3 Tech Stocks Delivering High-Dividend Yields

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $80.78 while gold traded down 0.1% at $2,165.70.

Silver traded up 2.2% to $25.615 on Friday, while copper rose 1.6% to $4.1105.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 slipped 0.02%, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.29% while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 1.26% The German DAX gained 0.24% French CAC 40 rose 0.43% while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 0.44%.

The annual inflation rate in Italy was confirmed at 0.8% in February, while annual inflation rate in France fell to 3% in February from 3.1% a month ago.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.26%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 1.42%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.54% and India's S&P BSE Sensex dipping 0.7%.

China's new home prices fell by 1.4% year-over-year in February, while the People's Bank of China held the interest rate at 2.50%. The unemployment rate for Singapore was confirmed at 2.0% for the fourth quarter.

Economics

U.S. manufacturing production increased by 0.8% month-over-month in February.

U.S. industrial production rose by 0.1% from the prior month in February.

The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index fell to -20.9 in March versus -2.4 in February.

Export prices in the U.S. increased 0.8% month-over-month in February, while import prices rose by 0.3%.