Mid-Day Market Update: US Stocks Turn Positive; Nasdaq Surges 2%

US stocks turned higher, with all the three major indices recording gains. The Nasdaq climbed more than 2% following stronger-than-expected earnings results from Apple Inc. AAPL.

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.68% to 34,392.17 while the NASDAQ rose 2.15% to 13,640.48. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.39% to 4,386.78.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares jumped 2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Clearfield, Inc. CLFD, up 16% and Park City Group, Inc. PCYG up 16%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares dipped 1.4%.

Top Headline

Personal income in the US increased 0.3% from a month ago in December, while personal spending dropped 0.6% in December. The personal consumption expenditure price index, meanwhile, surged 5.8 percent year-over-year in December.

 

Equities Trading UP

Insulet Corporation PODD shares shot up 13% to $220.82 after the company announced FDA clearance of its Omnipod 5 Automated Insulin Delivery System.

Shares of Provention Bio, Inc. PRVB got a boost, shooting 18% to $4.02 after the company announced its intent to resubmit the teplizumab BLA for the delay of clinical type 1 diabetes in at-risk individuals following its Type B pre-BLA resubmission meeting with the FDA.

Vaccinex, Inc. VCNX shares were also up, gaining 13% to $1.0303. Vaccinex announced a private placement of approximately 5.9 million at $1.11 per share for about $6.6 million gross proceeds.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Williams Industrial Services Group Inc. WLMS shares tumbled 29% to $2.17 after the company issued weak sales forecast for FY22.

Shares of Volcon, Inc. VLCN were down 21% to $3.00. Volcon priced its underwritten public offering of 6.67 million shares of common stock at $3 per share.

Qurate Retail, Inc. QRTEA was down, falling 22% to $5.97. Qurate Retail said it sees preliminary Q4 retail revenue down 8% to 9%.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.4% to $87.83, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,783.90.

Silver traded down 1.5% Friday to $22.335 while copper fell 2.4% to $4.3180.

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Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.42%, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.44%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.31%. The German DAX dipped 1.76%, French CAC 40 declined 1.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.33%.

Manufacturing confidence in Italy declined to 113.9 in January from a revised 115 in the previous month, while consumer confidence fell to 114.2 from 117.7. The Germany’s economy shrank 0.7% on quarter during the final three months of 2021, versus market expectations for a 0.3% fall. Import prices in Germany surged 24% year-over-year in December.

Producer prices in France rose 1% from a month ago in December, while the country’s economy expanded 0.7% quarter-over-quarter in the fourth quarter. Spanish economy grew 2.0 percent on quarter in the final three months of 2021.

Economics

Personal income in the US increased 0.3% from a month ago in December, while personal spending dropped 0.6% in December. The personal consumption expenditure price index, meanwhile, surged 5.8 percent year-over-year in December.

The employment cost index rose 1.0% quarter-over-quarter during the last three months of 2021.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment was revised lower to 67.2 in January versus a preliminary reading of 68.8.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release 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 74,695,330 cases with around 902,140 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 40,622,700 cases and 492,350 deaths, while Brazil reported over 24,782,920 COVID-19 cases with 625,160 deaths. In total, there were at least 367,331,100 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,658,530 deaths.