Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Higher; Deere Beats Q1 Views

U.S. stocks traded slightly higher this morning after recording sharp losses in the previous session.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.14% to 34,358.63 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01% to 13,717.60. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.26% to 4,391.74.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares climbed 0.7% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included System1, Inc. SST, up 9% and Iridium Communications Inc. IRDM up 5%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell by 0.5%.

Top Headline

Deere & Company DE reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter and raised profit guidance.

Deere posted quarterly earnings of $2.92 per share, beating market estimates of $2.26 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $9.57 billion, versus expectations of $8.19 billion.

Deere boosted its FY22 net income guidance from $6.5 billion-$7 billion to $6.7 billion-$7.1 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Fast Radius, Inc. FSRD shares shot up 85% to $7.04 after jumping 17% on Thursday.

Shares of Gelesis Holdings, Inc. GLS got a boost, shooting 79% to $4.93.

Sky Harbour Group Corporation SKYH shares were also up, gaining 55% to $10.54.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Anghami Inc. ANGH shares tumbled 35% to $18.83 after surging 161% on Thursday.

Shares of Backblaze, Inc. BLZE were down 29% to $9.90 after the company reported a wider-than-expected Q4 loss.

Doma Holdings Inc. DOMA was down, falling 29% to $2.40 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.6% to $89.34, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,889.40.

Silver traded down 0.7% Friday to $23.710 while copper rose 0.3% to $4.5380.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.7%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.8%. The German DAX fell 1.3%, French CAC 40 dropped 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.5%.

The Euro Area current account surplus shrank to EUR 35.6 billion in December from EUR 42.3 billion in the year-ago month. Retail sales in the UK rose 1.9% from a month earlier in January

French consumer price inflation rate was confirmed at 2.9% year-over-year in January, while unemployment rate in the country dropped to 7.4% in the fourth quarter from a revised 8.0% in the prior period.

Economics

U.S. existing home increased 6.7% to an annual rate of 6.5 million in January.

The index of leading economic indicators fell 0.3% for January.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans is set to speak at 10:15 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 11:00 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

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

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard is set to speak at 1:30 p.m. ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 79,915,730 cases with around 955,490 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,780,230 cases and 510,930 deaths, while Brazil reported over 27,941,470 COVID-19 cases with 641,990 deaths. In total, there were at least 420,751,330 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,883,740 deaths.