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 ( 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 ( HKIT ) got a boost, surging 114% to $0.12. HiTek Global’s sales agreement with Maxim Group has been terminated by Maxim.

Argan Inc ( 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 ( GLND ) shares dropped 24% to $9.91 following its merger with Pelican Acquisition Corporation.

Shares of Datacentrex, Inc. ( DTCX ) were down 34% to $2.0350 after the company announced pricing of its public offering at $2.00 per share.

Zenas BioPharma, Inc. ( 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.