Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Rises 0.5%; Integrated Media Technology Shares Jump

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.04% to 36,504.54 while the NASDAQ rose 0.59% to 15,859.87. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.14% to 4,799.86.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 54,656,860 cases with around 844,270 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,822,040 cases and 480,860 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,263,830 COVID-19 cases with 618,870 deaths. In total, there were at least 285,031,830 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,441,370 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares climbed 0.5% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included iQIYI, Inc. IQ, up 20% and Yalla Group Limited YALA up 17%.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell 0.3%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims dropped by 8,000 from the prior period to 198,000 in the week ending December 25. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 208,000.

 

Equities Trading UP

Molecular Templates, Inc. MTEM shares shot up 28% to $4.3199.

Shares of uCloudlink Group Inc. UCL got a boost, shooting 11% to $4.89 after jumping over 15% on Wednesday.

Integrated Media Technology Limited IMTE shares were also up, gaining 19% to $5.35 as the company agreed to take over the rights and obligation on a Cooperation Agreement on developing a Blockchain business.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Vector Group Ltd. VGR shares tumbled 35% to $11.20. Vector Group said it has completed the spin-off of Douglas Elliman Inc. into a standalone, publicly traded company.

Shares of Pop Culture Group Co., Ltd CPOP were down 16% to $2.74 after climbing 41% on Wednesday.

Takung Art Co., Ltd. TKAT was down, falling 15% to $4.44 after jumping around 37% on Wednesday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $76.91, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,815.10.

Silver traded up 0.9% Thursday to $23.06 while copper fell 0.6% to $4.3855.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.15%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.46% and the German DAX 40 gained 0.21%. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 slipped 0.24%, while French CAC 40 gained 0.16% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.01%.

Spain's annual inflation rate increased to 6.7% in December from 5.5% in the earlier month. House prices in the UK increased by 10.4% year-over-year in December following a 10% rise in the previous month.

Economics

US initial jobless claims dropped by 8,000 from the prior period to 198,000 in the week ending December 25. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 208,000.

The Chicago PMI rose to 63.1 for December from previous reading of 61.8.

Data on farm prices for November will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here