Dow Jumps 300 Points; Gap Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining by more than 300 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.72% to 44,184.62 while the NASDAQ rose 0.07% to 18,985.33. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.35% to 5,969.29.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares rose by 1% on Friday.

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

Top Headline

Gap, Inc. GAP reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter and raised its outlook for FY24 gross margin.

The company reported quarterly earnings of 54 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 40 cents per share.

Equities Trading UP

SKK Holdings Limited SKK shares shot up 76% to $1.95 after declining around 75% on Wednesday.
Shares of DevvStream Corp. DEVS got a boost, surging 77% to $0.8931.
Replimune Group, Inc. REPL shares were also up, gaining 48% to $16.37 after the company on Thursday announced it received breakthrough therapy designation status for RP1 and will submit an RP1 biologics license application to the FDA under an accelerated approval pathway.

Equities Trading DOWN

Autonomix Medical, Inc. AMIX shares dropped 52% to $6.53 after the company announced the pricing of a $9 million underwritten public offering.
Shares of Aptose Biosciences Inc. APTO were down 44% to $0.1374 after the company announced the pricing of an $8 million public offering.
Cemtrex, Inc. CETX was down, falling 42% to $0.1148 after the company announced its board approved a 1-for-35 reverse stock split.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $70.67 while gold traded up 0.9% at $2,697.70.

Silver traded up 1.2% to $31.33 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.8% to $4.0910.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 1.2%, Germany's DAX gained 0.9% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.7%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.2%, while London's FTSE 100 gained 1.4%.

The S&P Global UK composite PMI declined to 49.9 in November versus 51.8 in the previous month, while Eurozone composite PMI dipped to 48.1 in November from 50 in the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 0.68%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 1.89%, China's Shanghai Composite Index dipping 3.06% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 2.54%.

Economics

The S&P Global US Services PMI climbed to 57 in November versus 55 in the previous month, while manufacturing PMI increased to 48.8 in November from 48.5 in the previous month.
The University of Michigan consumer sentiment for the US fell to 71.8 in November versus a preliminary reading of 73.
The year-ahead inflation expectations in the U.S fell to 2.6% in November from 2.7% in October.

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