Nasdaq Rises 150 Points; Crude Oil Up 2%

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining around 500 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 1.53% to 33,351.53 while the NASDAQ rose 1.43% to 10,698.43. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.39% to 3,874.58.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financials shares jumped by 1.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Value Line, Inc. VALU, up 16%, and Consumer Portfolio Services, Inc. CPSS, up 13%.

In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares rose by just 0.8%.

Top Headline

 

The US current account deficit shrank by 9.1%, to $217.1 billion in the third quarter versus a revised $238.7 billion in the prior quarter and compared with market estimates of $222.0 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

 

• Sintx Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SINT) shares shot up 59% to $11.90 after the company announced it has received a Phase I contract for $150,000 from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.
• Shares of Laser Photonics Corporation LASE got a boost, shooting 41% to $2.1650 after the company announced it received an order from the largest glass manufacturer in North America.
• Venus Concept Inc. VERO shares were also up, gaining 54% to $0.3882 after the company announced it received a 510(k) clearance from the FDA to market its AI.ME next generation robotic technology for fractional skin resurfacing.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

• Celyad Oncology SA (NASDAQ: CYAD) shares tumbled 37% to $0.6592 after the company issued an update on its Celyad 2.0 business strategy, which has been adopted and implemented over the last few months. The company reported it has decided to discontinue the development of its remaining clinical program CYAD-211.
• Shares of IceCure Medical Ltd ICCM were down 41% to $1.5450. IceCure reported pricing of 8,787,880 share public offering at $1.65 per share.
• Core Scientific, Inc. CORZ was down, falling 56% to $0.0908 after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.3% to $77.86 while gold traded up 0.1% at $1,826.10.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $24.175 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.2% to $3.8055.

Stocks of crude oil in the US dropped by 5.894 million in the week ended December 16, above market estimates of a 1.657 million decline, the US Energy Information Administration said.

 

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.64%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.7% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.4%. The German DAX rose 1.43%, French CAC 40 climbed 1.96% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.45%.

The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator in Germany improved to -37.8 heading into January compared to a revised reading of -40.1 in December.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 0.68% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.34%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.17%.

Hong Kong’s current account surplus increased to HKD 115.8 billion in the third quarter from HKD 91 billion in the year-ago period.

 

Economics

 

• The US current account deficit shrank by 9.1%, to $217.1 billion in the third quarter versus a revised $238.7 billion in the prior quarter and compared with market estimates of $222.0 billion.
• Existing home sales in the US fell 7.7% to an annual rate of 4.09 million in November.

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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 101,865,920 cases with around 1,113,800 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,677,440 cases and 530,680 deaths, while France reported over 38,971,110 COVID-19 cases with 160,740 deaths. In total, there were at least 659,146,070 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,676,260 deaths.