Dow Jumps More Than 600 Points; Citigroup Tops Q2 Expectations

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, following the release of several earnings results and economic reports.

The Dow traded up 2.07% to 31,262.89 while the NASDAQ rose 1.55% to 11,425.80. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.77% to 3,857.64.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares rose 3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Citigroup Inc. C, up 10% and AMTD IDEA Group AMTD up 9%.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares rose by just 0.3%.

Top Headline

Citigroup Inc. C reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter on Friday.

Citigroup posted quarterly earnings of $2.19 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.69 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $19.60 billion, versus expectations of $18.12 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

United Maritime Corporation USEA shares shot up 183% to $6.23. United Maritime, on Tuesday, announced acquisition of four oil tankers and filed for stock offering on Wednesday.

Shares of NexImmune, Inc. NEXI got a boost, shooting 32% to $1.94 after the company received Investigational New Drug (IND) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its first cellular therapy product candidate NEXI-003 addressing solid tumors..

Vertical Aerospace Ltd. EVTL shares were also up, gaining 30% to $3.7715 after the company announced FLYINGGROUP has conditionally pre-ordered up to 50 VX4 aircrafts.

Equities Trading DOWN

Codexis, Inc. CDXS shares tumbled 42% to $6.95 after the company issued Q2 and FY22 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

Shares of Synthetic Biologics, Inc. SYN were down 30% to $0.1640 after the company announced a 1-for-10 reverse stock split.

First Wave BioPharma, Inc. FWBI was down, falling 24% to $0.1522 after the company announced a private placement.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3% to $98.63, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,702.30.

Silver traded up 1.7% to $18.53 on Friday while copper rose 1% to $3.2445.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 1.61%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.67% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.83%. The German DAX gained 2.50%, French CAC 40 rose 1.76% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.82%.

The Eurozone reported a trade gap of EUR 26.3 in May, versus a year-ago surplus of EUR 12.0 billion. Passenger car registrations in the European Union dipped 15.4% year-over-year to 886,510 units in June. The annual inflation rate in Italy climbed 8% year-over-year in June, the highest since January 1986.

Economics

US retail sales rose 1% month-over-month in June, exceeding market estimates of a 0.8% gain, and following a revised 0.1% decline in May.

The New York Empire State Manufacturing Index climbed to 11.1 in July from -1.2 in the previous month.

Import prices in the US rose 0.2% from a month ago in June, while export prices rose by 0.7%.

Industrial production fell 0.2% from a month ago in June, missing market estimates of a 0.1% increase.

US business inventories increased 1.4% from a month ago in May.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 51.1 in July versus a record low level of 50 in June.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 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 91,060,220 cases with around 1,048,230 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,710,020 cases and 525,600 deaths, while Brazil reported over 33,142,150 COVID-19 cases with 674,840 deaths. In total, there were at least 565,639,980 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,382,680 deaths.