Gold Moves Higher; US Consumer Sentiment Improves In December

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining around 50 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.16% to 37,465.58 while the NASDAQ rose 0.28% to 15,005.25. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.28% to 4,759.82.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

 

Utilities shares jumped by 0.9% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 0.4%.

 

Top Headline

 

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment was revised higher to 69.7 in December versus a preliminary reading of 69.4.

 

Equities Trading UP

 

Karuna Therapeutics, Inc. KRTX shares shot up 47% to $316.30. Bristol Myers Squibb & Co BMY agreed to acquire Karuna Therapeutics for $330.00 per share in cash, for a total equity value of $14.0 billion, or $12.7 billion net of estimated cash acquired.

Shares of Royalty Management Holding Corporation RMCO got a boost, surging 49% to $2.9650 after the company said its unit Ferrox Holdings confirmed the commencement of production of titanium ferrite from its Tivani operating site.

Daseke, Inc. DSKE shares were also up, gaining 65% to $8.11 after the company announced it will be acquired by TFI International.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

 

AlloVir, Inc. ALVR shares dropped 66% to $0.7988 after the company provided an update on its three Phase 3 clinical trials with posoleucel, an investigational off-the-shelf multi-virus-specific T cell therapy, which targets six viral pathogens in immunocompromised individuals: adenovirus (AdV), BK virus (BKV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) and JC virus (JCV).

Shares of Advent Technologies Holdings, Inc. ADN were down 35% to $0.2050 after the company announced a $2 million registered direct offering of common stock.

Netcapital Inc. NCPL was down, falling 34% to $0.2194 after the company announced pricing of a $4 million public offering.

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Commodities

 

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $73.92 while gold traded up 0.7% at $2,065.20.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $24.55 on Friday while copper fell 0.3% to $ 3.9040.

 

Euro zone

 

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.14%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.04% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.08% The German DAX rose 0.11% French CAC 40 fell 0.03%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.26%.

The consumer confidence index in Italy climbed to 106.7 in December from 103.6 a month ago, while manufacturing confidence index fell to 95.4 in December from 96.6 in November. Spanish economy grew by 0.3% quarter-over-quarter during the third quarter.

Producer prices in the French domestic market rose by 2.4% month-over-month in November compared to a revised 0.1% decline a month ago, while consumer confidence increased to 89 in December versus a revised 88 in the prior month.

The British economy grew by 0.3% year-over-year in the third quarter, while current account deficit shrank to £17.2 billion in the third quarter of versus a revised £24.0 billion gap in the prior period. Retail sales in the U.K. rose by 1.3% from a month ago in November.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

 

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.09%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.69% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.13%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.34%.

The annual inflation rate in Japan fell to 2.8% in November from 3.3% in the earlier month, while food prices in Japan increased by 7.3% from a year ago in November.

 

Economics

 

New orders for manufactured durable goods rose by 5.4% month-over-month in November.

Building permits in the U.S. declined by 2.1% to an annual rate of 1.467 million in November versus the preliminary estimate of 1.460 million.

Personal income in the U.S. rose by 0.4% month-over-month in November, while personal spending increased by 0.2% from a month ago in November.

Core PCE prices in the U.S. rose by 0.1% from the prior month in November. However, core prices rose by 3.2% from the prior year, compared to market estimates of 3.3%.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment was revised higher to 69.7 in December versus a preliminary reading of 69.4.

Sales of new single-family houses fell by 12.2% from the prior month to an annualized rate of 590 thousand in November.

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