U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite falling around 1.5% on Friday.

The Dow traded down 1.11% to 45,448.58 while the NASDAQ fell 1.51% to 21,084.20. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 1.07% to 6,407.96.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed by 1.4% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, consumer discretionary stocks fell by 2.1%.

Top Headline

The University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index dipped to 53.3 in March from the preliminary reading of 55.5 and down from February's reading of 56.6.

Equities Trading UP
           

  • Artelo Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:ARTL) shares shot up 192% to $9.33 after the company announced the withdrawal of its SEC Registration Statement as it doesn’t intend to sell securities at this time.
  • Shares of Hitek Global Inc (NASDAQ:HKIT) got a boost, surging 114% to $0.12. HiTek Global’s sales agreement with Maxim Group has been terminated by Maxim.
  • Argan Inc (NYSE:AGX) shares were also up, gaining 33% to $547.00 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.

Equities Trading DOWN

  • Greenland Energy Company (NASDAQ:GLND) shares dropped 24% to $9.91 following its merger with Pelican Acquisition Corporation.
  • Shares of Datacentrex, Inc. (NASDAQ:DTCX) were down 34% to $2.0350 after the company announced pricing of its public offering at $2.00 per share.
  • Zenas BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZBIO) was down, falling 21% to $17.54 after it announced it priced concurrent public offerings of $200 million of convertible senior notes and 5 million shares at $20 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 4% to $98.27 while gold traded up 1.8% at $4,456.00.

Silver traded up 1.4% to $68.860 on Friday, while copper rose 0.3% to $5.4935.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.9%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.8%. London's FTSE 100 declined 0.1%, Germany's DAX dipped 1.2% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.7% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.43%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gaining 0.38%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.63% and India's BSE Sensex dipping 2.25%.

Economics

The University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index dipped to 53.3 in March from the preliminary reading of 55.5 and down from February's reading of 56.6.

Photo via Shutterstock