U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 400 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.87% to 50,721.45 while the NASDAQ gained 0.60% to 26,450.18. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.66% to 7,494.96.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares jumped by 1.4% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, communication services stocks fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell to a record low level of 44.8 in May, compared to a preliminary reading of 48.2.

Equities Trading UP

Immuneering Corp ( IMRX ) shares shot up 29% to $6.72 after the company announced a 17.3-month median overall survival in first-line metastatic pancreatic cancer patients treated in its Phase 2a clinical trial evaluating atebimetinib.

Shares of Assembly Biosciences Inc ( ASMB ) got a boost, surging 15% to $30.42 after the company announced plans to expand the clinical development of ABI-6250. The company priced its $100 million offering of 3,358,602 shares at $26.50 per share.

Akari Therapeutics PLC ( AKTX ) shares were also up, gaining 88% to $9.68 after the company announced preclinical data demonstrating synergistic activity of AKTX-101 with KRAS inhibition in KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancer models

Equities Trading DOWN

Global Mofy AI Ltd ( GMM ) shares dropped 69% to $0.30 after the company reported pricing of $8 million registered offering.

Shares of NervGen Pharma Corp ( NGEN ) were down 44% to $2.07 after the company announced the pricing of its $60 million public offering of 24 million common shares and warrants at $2.50 each.

Futu Holdings Ltd ( FUTU ) was down, falling 26% to $91.64. Futu Holdings ( FUTU ) confirmed receipt of notice of investigation, administrative penalty pre-notification letter from China regulator over alleged breach of securities law.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $96.85 while gold traded down 0.6% at $4,517.30.

Silver traded down 0.5% to $76.340 on Friday, while copper rose 1% to $6.3535.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.8%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.3%. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.3%, Germany's DAX gained 1.2%, while France's CAC 40 climbed 0.6%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 2.68%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.86%, China's Shanghai Composite surging 0.87% and India's BSE Sensex rising 0.31%

Economics

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index fell to a record low level of 44.8 in May, compared to a preliminary reading of 48.2.