Benzinga | Mar 11, 2021 12:59PM EST

Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Rises Over 2%; Siebert Financial Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.88% to 32,581.70 while the NASDAQ rose 2.43% to 13,386.60. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.32% to 3,950.28.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 29,154,660 cases with around 529,260 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 11,285,560 confirmed cases and 158,180 deaths, while Brazil reported over 11,202,300 COVID-19 cases with 270,650 deaths. In total, there were at least 118,119,330 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,621,980 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose 2.3% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE:DQ), up 16%, and Innodata Inc.. (NASDAQ:INOD), up 23%.

In trading on Thursday, financial shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims declined to 712,000 for the first week of March from a revised reading of 754,000 in the previous week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 725,000.



Equities Trading UP

Entera Bio Ltd. (NASDAQ:ENTX) shares shot up 201% to $4.82 after the company disclosed positive topline EB613 Phase 2 biomarker data.

Shares of Siebert Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:SIEB) got a boost, shooting 33% to $5.70 following FY20 results. The company reported FY20 sales of $54.9 million, up from $28.6 million year over year.

Nova LifeStyle, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVFY) shares were also up, gaining 85% to $4.45.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Celsius Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CELH) shares tumbled 22% to $47.30 after the company reported Q4 results

Shares of Just Energy Group Inc. (NYSE:JE) were down 23% to $1.99. The company announced that the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange have commenced delisting proceedings.

Enveric Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENVB) was down, falling 22% to $3.5215. Enveric Biosciences shares jumped 55% on Wednesday in reaction to acquiring an exclusive, perpetual license for novel molecules from Diverse Biotech.



Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.2% to $65.86, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,720.80.

Silver traded up 0.2% Thursday to $26.175 while copper rose 2.5% to $4.1330.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 climbed 0.49%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.8% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.2%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.72%, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.17% and Italy's FTSE MIB gained 0.82%.

Economics

US initial jobless claims declined to 712,000 for the latest week from a revised reading of 754,000 in the previous week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 725,000.

The number of job openings increased by 165,000 from the previous month to 6.917 million in January.



Check out the full economic calendar here