Toward the end of Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.08% to 36,517.50 while the NASDAQ rose 0.46% to 15,838.04. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.12% to 4,798.69.
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
Real estate shares climbed 0.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included KE Holdings Inc. BEKE, up 13% and Diversified Healthcare Trust DHC up 8%.
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
Kiora Pharmaceuticals, Inc. KPRX shares shot up 64% to $1.44. Kiora Pharmaceuticals recently appointed David Hollander, MD, MBA, to its Board of Directors.
Shares of Future FinTech Group Inc. FTFT got a boost, shooting 31% to $1.6150 after the company announced a new blockchain division.
Integrated Media Technology Limited IMTE shares were also up, gaining 18% to $5.33 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 $11.15. Vector Group said it has completed the spin-off of Douglas Elliman Inc. into a standalone, publicly traded company.
Shares of Puxin Limited NEW were down 23% to $0.4170. Puxin shares jumped 80% on Wednesday after the company reported Q2 earnings results.
Biofrontera Inc. BFRI was down, falling 13% to $7.63. Biofrontera announced reduction of Biofrontera AG shareholding to less than 50% through warrant exercises.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $76.89, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,814.70.
Silver traded up 0.8% Thursday to $23.045 while copper fell 0.7% to $4.3830.
Euro zone
European shares closed 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.
US natural-gas supplies dropped 136 billion cubic feet last week, the EIA said.
Data on farm prices for November will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
