Dow Surges Over 100 Points; Crude Oil Rises Sharply

U.S. stocks traded mostly higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining over 100 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.36% to 33,145.35 while the NASDAQ fell 0.13% to 10,462.81. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.31% to 3,834.09.

Check This Out: Most Affordable Stocks In The Consumer Discretionary Sector: Tesla, Ford And More

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 2.6% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Nine Energy Service, Inc. NINE, up 9%, and Hallador Energy Company HNRG, up 11%.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline

 

Personal spending rose 0.1% month-over-month in November, while personal consumption expenditure price index rose by 5.5% year-over-year in November. Personal income in the United States rose 0.4% from a month ago in November.

 

Equities Trading UP

 

• Expion360 Inc. XPON shares shot up 138% to $2.3350 after the company announced it has been selected as the exclusive supplier of high-energy lithium ion batteries for an overland trailer to be branded and sold by a top U.S. sports utility vehicle manufacturer.
• Shares of DBV Technologies S.A. DBVT got a boost, shooting 22% to $1.4450 after the company announced the FDA has lifted the partial clinical hold on its VITESSE Phase 3 Pivotal Trial.
• Immuron Limited IMRN shares were also up, gaining 26% to $2.1798 after the company received FDA approval for Travelan IND application.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

• Atai Life Sciences N.V. ATAI shares tumbled 10% to $2.73. The company reported results from the Kures Therapeutics Phase 1 trial of KUR-10.
• Shares of Mission Produce, Inc. AVO were down 15% to $12.35 after the company reported weaker-than-expected results for its fourth quarter on Thursday.
• Applied Molecular Transport Inc. AMTI was down, falling 54% to $0.47 after the company announced top-line Phase 2 results from the LOMBARD monotherapy trial, in which the company saw similar clinical remission rates in patients receiving AMT-101 compared to the placebo at week 12.

Also Check This Out: Tesla To $175? Here Are 10 Other Price Target Changes For Friday

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.5% to $79.45 while gold traded up 0.8% at $1,809.50.

Silver traded up 1.5% to $23.985 on Friday while copper rose 1.1% to $3.7965.

 

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.04%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.05% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.04%. The German DAX gained 0.19%, French CAC 40 fell 0.20% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.27%.

Producer prices in Spain climbed 20.7% year-over-year in November, while the country’s quarterly economic growth was revised lower to 0.1% in the third quarter versus a preliminary reading of 0.2%. Producer prices in the French domestic markets increased 1.2% month-over-month in November.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Friday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 1.03% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.44%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.28%.

Foreign direct investment into China surged 9.9% year-over-year to CNY 1.16 trillion during the first eleven months of the year. The core consumer price index in Japan rose 3.7% from a year ago in November.

 

Economics

 

• Personal spending rose 0.1% month-over-month in November, while personal consumption expenditure price index rose by 5.5% year-over-year in November. Personal income in the United States rose 0.4% from a month ago in November.
• Durable goods orders in the US dropped by 2.1% month-over-month in November.
• The University of Michigan consumer sentiment was revised higher to 59.7 in December from a preliminary reading of 59.1

Now Read This: Bitcoin Moves Higher But Remains Below $17,000; THORChain Emerges As Top Gainer

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 102,048,470 cases with around 1,114,930 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,677,590 cases and 530,680 deaths, while France reported over 39,025,730 COVID-19 cases with 160,870 deaths. In total, there were at least 659,881,370 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,678,920 deaths.