Dow Rises 350 Points; BJ's Wholesale Beats Estimates

U.S. stocks traded higher Friday morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining over 350 points.

After the market opened Friday, the Dow rose 0.67% to 53,113.67 points, the Nasdaq rose 0.06% to 26,082.46 points, and the S&P 500 also rose 0.32% to 7,663.85 points.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials stocks rose 2% on Friday.

In Friday trading, utilities stocks fell 0.3%.

Top Headlines

BJ's Wholesale Club reported better-than-expected second-quarter results on Friday.

The company reported quarterly earnings of $1.36 per share, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $1.17 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $6.227 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $5.957 billion.

BJ's Wholesale raised its 2026 adjusted earnings per share guidance from $4.40-$4.60 to $4.60-$4.80.

Stocks Moving Up

RF Acquisition Corp II shares surged 306% to $51.69 after a Thursday SEC filing detailed a special shareholder meeting. At the August 19 meeting, shareholders overwhelmingly approved a proposed business combination with Nanyang Biologics Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based AI-driven drug discovery company.

Werewolf Therapeutics Inc shares jumped 109% to $0.90 after the company announced a merger with Ambros Therapeutics. The two companies secured oversubscribed $150 million in merger financing commitments from a leading healthcare-focused investor syndicate.

Jupiter Neurosciences Inc shares also rose 57% to $8.09. Jupiter Neurosciences signed a definitive licensing agreement with PharmAla for its patented non-racemic MDMA formulation, ALA-002.

Stocks Moving Down

Jianzhi Education Technology Group Company Limited's American Depositary Shares fell 25% to $2.48 after jumping 95% on Thursday.

iSpecimen Inc shares fell 22% to $1.76 after dropping about 5% on Thursday. iSpecimen announced the completion of an international cancer research project.

Flux Power Holdings Inc shares fell 21% to $0.65 after the company reported mixed fourth-quarter financial results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil rose 0.2% to $86.99, and gold rose 1.6% to $4,642.60.

Silver rose 2.1% to $69.515 on Friday, and copper rose 2.1% to $6.6070.

Eurozone

European stocks traded higher today. The Eurozone STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, Spain's IBEX 35 rose 0.8%, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.2%, Germany's DAX rose 0.3%, and France's CAC 40 rose 0.2%.

Asia-Pacific Markets

Asia-Pacific markets closed mostly higher on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.30%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rising 1.21%, China's Shanghai Composite rising 0.04%, and India's BSE Sensex rising 0.004%.

Economic Data

The S&P Global U.S. Manufacturing PMI fell to 53.2 in August, down from 53.9 previously, while the market expected 53.9.

The S&P Global U.S. Services PMI rose to 56.8 in August, up from 54.6 previously, while the market expected 54.

The S&P Global U.S. Composite PMI rose to 56 in August, up from 54.5 previously, marking the strongest growth since April 2022.