Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Higher On January's Final Trading Day

US stocks opened on a mixed note on the final trading day of January, but turned higher later during the session. The Nasdaq index, meanwhile, surged around 250 points this morning.

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.07% to 34,751.18 while the NASDAQ rose 1.82% to 14,020.70. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.64% to 4,460.23.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares jumped 1.3% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited BEDU, up 4% and iMedia Brands, Inc IMBI up 2%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares dipped 1.7%.

Top Headline

Trane Technologies plc TT reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter.

Trane Technologies reported quarterly earnings of $1.36 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $1.31 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $3.57 billion, versus estimates of $3.55 billion.

Trane Technologies said it sees FY22 EPS of $6.95 to $7.15, versus expectations of $6.97 per share.

Equities Trading UP

FGI Industries Ltd. FGI shares shot up 42% to $5.36 after jumping 19% on Friday. The company, last week, priced its IPO at $6 per share.

Shares of Knightscope, Inc. KSCP got a boost, shooting 29% to $21.08 after jumping 175% on Friday. The company, last week, priced its IPO at $10 per share.

Bassett Furniture Industries, Incorporated BSET shares were also up, gaining 25% to $17.44 after reporting Q4 results. J.B. Hunt agreed to acquire Zenith Freight Lines from Bassett for $87 million.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Imperial Petroleum Inc. IMPP shares tumbled 51% to $1.06 after the company reported pricing of upsized $12 million underwritten public offering.

Shares of Indonesia Energy Corporation Limited INDO were down 16% to $4.69 after declining over 5% on Friday.

AppHarvest, Inc. APPH was down, falling 14% to $2.9150. AppHarvest reported preliminary FY21 net sales and non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA at the higher end of guidance.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $86.89, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,796.60.

Silver traded up 0.7% Monday to $22.465 while copper fell 0.3% to $4.2955.

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Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.6%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.1%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.3%. The German DAX surged 0.7%, French CAC 40 slipped 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.6%.

Spanish retail trade dropped 2.3% year-over-year in December following a revised 5.1% increase in the prior month, while annual inflation rate eased to 6% in January.

Economics

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index for January will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly is set to speak at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Kansas City Fed President Esther George will speak at 12:40 p.m. ET.

Data on farm prices for December will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 75,578,070 cases with around 907,190 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 41,302,440 cases and 495,050 deaths, while Brazil reported over 25,351,480 COVID-19 cases with 626,920 deaths. In total, there were at least 375,607,490 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,682,960 deaths.