Crude Oil Rises Over 1%; Fed's Preferred Inflation Gauge Slows In May

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 1% on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.62% to 34,333.42 while the NASDAQ rose 1.37% to 13,777.52. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 1.04% to 4,441.95.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Information technology shares jumped by 1.7% on Friday.
• In trading on Friday, real estate shares rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

The Core Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, rose 4.6% year-over-year in May 2023, slightly down from both the previous and expected 4.7%, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday.

Equities Trading UP

• Renalytix Plc RNLX shares shot up 33% to $2.69 after the company received FDA De Novo marketing authorization for its KidneyIntelX.dkd prognostic test.
• Shares of Baudax Bio, Inc. BXRX got a boost, shooting 152% to $1.3138 after the company agreed to acquire TeraImmune in a stock-for-stock transaction.
• Cyteir Therapeutics, Inc. CYT shares were also up, gaining 37% to $2.63 after the company announced that it is discontinuing all development of CYT-0851, dissolving the company and liquidating its assets.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Unicycive Therapeutics, Inc. UNCY shares dropped 24% to $1.26 after the company provided an update concerning its marketing application for lanthanum dioxycarbonate for hyperphosphatemia in chronic kidney disease patients on dialysis.
• Shares of Root, Inc. ROOT were down 16% to $9.47. Root said it is not in receipt of any proposal that is either actionable or in the best interests of shareholders.
• Cineverse Corp. CNVS was down, falling 17% to $1.90 after the company reported weak fourth-quarter sales.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $70.66 while gold traded up 0.3% at $1,923.10.

Silver traded up 0.6% to $22.925 on Friday while copper rose 1.4% to $3.7540.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.23%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.91% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.07% The German DAX climbed 1.37% French CAC 40 rose 1.42% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.19%.

The unemployment rate in the Eurozone came in unchanged at a record low level of 6.5% in May. The consumer price inflation rate in the Eurozone declined to 5.5% in June from 6.1% in the prior month.

Germany’s unemployment rate rose to 5.7% in June, while Italy’s jobless rate dropped to 7.6% in May. Producer prices in the French domestic markets declined 1.4% month-over-month during the month of May, while consumer price inflation fell to 4.5% year-over-year in June.

The gross domestic product in the UK expanded by 0.2% during the first quarter, while current account gap increased sharply to £10.8 billion in the first quarter versus a £2.5 billion gap in the prior period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.14%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.09%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.62%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex gained 1.3%.

China recorded a current account surplus of $81.5 billion in the first quarter versus a year-ago surplus of $85.3 billion. The NBS Composite PMI Output Index in China fell to 52.3 in June from 52.9 in the prior month. Japan's housing starts climbed by 3.5% year-over-year in May, while industrial production dropped by 1.6% month-over-month in May. Japan’s unemployment rate came in at 2.6% in May.

Economics

• Personal income in the U.S. increased by 0.4% month-over-month in May following a revised 0.3% growth in April.
• Personal spending in the U.S. rose by 0.1% in May following a 0.6% increase in April.
• The personal consumption expenditure price index in the U.S. rose 3.8% year-over-year in May, recording the lowest reading since April 2021.

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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 107,305,930 cases with around 1,168,110 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,994,140 cases and 531,900 deaths, while France reported over 40,137,450 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 690,920,130 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,895,420 deaths.