U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 1% on Friday.

The Dow traded up 1.16% to 52,666.76 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.23% to 26,403.20. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.08% to 7,673.87.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 1.7% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, energy stocks fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

Kroger Company (NYSE:KR) stock gained around 3% on Friday after the grocer reported second-quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations.

Adjusted earnings were $1.09 per share, beating the $1.06 estimate. Sales of $34.621 billion also topped the $34.580 billion estimate.

Equities Trading UP
           

  • Frequency Electronics Inc (NASDAQ:FEIM) shares shot up 30% to $80.96 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.
  • Shares of ACV Auctions Inc (NYSE:ACVA) got a boost, surging 44% to $10.42 after Texas-based provider of online vehicle auction and remarketing services Copart Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT) announced a definitive agreement to acquire the company for $10.50 per share in cash.
  • Indaptus Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:INDP) shares were also up, gaining 7% to $2.73. Indaptus Therapeutics announced private placement of 20,338,974 shares for gross proceeds of $24 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

  • CPI Card Group Inc (NASDAQ:PMTS) shares dropped 16% to $22.61 after the company announced the pricing of its proposed secondary public offering of 2,337,323 shares shares at $21.50 per share.
  • Shares of Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NYSE:OPTT) were down 40% to $0.095 after the company announced a 1-for-30 reverse stock split effective September 14.
  • Nuscale Power Corp (NYSE:SMR) was down, falling 11% to $9.12 after UBS downgraded its rating on the stock from Neutral to Sell and lowered its price target from $10 to $6.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.9% to $99.54 while gold traded up 0.2% at $4,416.10.

Silver traded up 0.6% to $65.335 on Friday, while copper rose 0.1% to $6.5475.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.5%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.8%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.4%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.7%, while France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.7%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dipping 1.93%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index falling 0.60%, China’s Shanghai Composite falling 1.18% and India’s BSE Sensex falling 0.16%.

Economics

  • U.S. annual inflation held at 3.4% in August, matching the market consensus and remaining unchanged from July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.
  • The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index declined to 47.8 in early September, compared to market expectations of 51.0.

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