Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; US Consumer Spending Rises 0.6% In November

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.54% to 35,947.48 while the NASDAQ rose 0.28% to 15,565.87. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.50% to 4,720.21.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 52,510,970 cases with around 833,020 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,765,970 cases and 478,750 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,222,920 COVID-19 cases with 618,120 deaths. In total, there were at least 277,617,680 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,396,270 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Industrials shares climbed 1.2% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included View, Inc. VIEW, up 21% and Hyzon Motors Inc. HYZN up 14%.

In trading on Thursday, real estate shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

US consumer spending rose 0.6% in November, while personal income increased 0.4%. The personal consumption expenditure price index rose 5.7% year-over-year in November.

Equities Trading UP

Society Pass Incorporated SOPA shares shot up 33% to $21.65 after jumping over 53% on Wednesday.

Shares of Mobiquity Technologies, Inc. MOBQ got a boost, shooting 18% to $3.15. Mobiquity Technologies announced new service offerings for MobiExchange, the Company’s SaaS platform for digital advertising and data services.

View, Inc. VIEW shares were also up, gaining 22% to $4.70. View recently entered a strategic agreement with RXR Realty to combine the WorxWell data analytics platform into its technology stack.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

InnovAge Holding Corp. INNV shares tumbled 51% to $4.0194. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has determined to suspend new enrollments at InnovAge Holding’s Colorado centers based on deficiencies detected in an audit.

Shares of SciPlay Corporation SCPL were down 19% to $12.55 after the company reported its independent special committee was unable to reach a deal with Scientific Games.

American Virtual Cloud Technologies, Inc. AVCT was down, falling 22% to $1.94 after jumping 34% on Wednesday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $72.89, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,804.90.

Silver traded down 0.1% Thursday to $22.80 while copper fell 0.7% to $4.3615.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.6%, the Spanish Ibex Index surged 1.1% and the German DAX 40 gained 0.6%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.2%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.3%.

Manufacturing confidence in Italy fell to 115.2 in December from a revised reading of 115.9 in the previous month, while consumer confidence rose to 117.7 in December. Car production in the UK dropped 28.7% year-over-year to 75,756 units in November. Spain's quarterly economic growth was revised higher to 2.6% in the third quarter compared to a preliminary reading of 2%. Import prices in Germany jumped 24.7% year-over-year in November.

Economics

US durable goods orders rose 2.5% month-over-month in November.

US initial jobless claims came in unchanged from previous week’s revised level at 205,000 during the week that ended December 18.

US consumer spending rose 0.6% in November, while personal income increased 0.4%. The personal consumption expenditure price index rose 5.7% year-over-year in November.

New home sales surged 12.4% to an annual rate of 744,000 in November.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index climbed to 70.6 in December from a previous month’s reading of 67.4.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the recent week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here