Nasdaq Rises 1.5%; Pliant Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 150 points on Monday.

The Dow traded up 0.46% to 33,527.51 while the NASDAQ rose 1.55% to 11,313.03. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.85% to 4,006.43.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Information technology shares jumped by 2.4% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Presto Automation Inc. PRST, up 31%, and Bit Digital, Inc. BTBT, up 11%.
• In trading on Monday, materials shares rose by just 0.4%.

Top Headline

Synchrony Financial reported better-than-expected Q4 financial results.

Synchrony Financial posted Q4 earnings of $1.26 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.12 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $4.11 billion, versus expectations of $4.10 billion.

Equities Trading UP

• Pliant Therapeutics, Inc.. PLRX shares shot up 43% to $32.13 after the company announced its trial for patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis met its primary and secondary endpoints.
• Shares of Verb Technology Company, Inc. VERB got a boost, shooting 81% to $0.4150 after the company announced its board of directors has begun examining measures to address the alleged illegal short selling of its stock, among other suspected trading violations.
• Intelligent Bio Solutions Inc. INBS shares were also up, gaining 333% to $1.17 after the company announced it successfully completed the review of results from Milestone 7, a phase of its biosensor platform development.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CPRX shares tumbled 30% to $14.52 after Teva Pharmaceuticals stated it plans to sell a generic version of Catalyst's FIRDAPSE in the United States.
• Shares of AnPac Bio-Medical Science Co., Ltd. ANPC were down 17% to $8.02. AnPac Bio-Medical Sciences announced receipt of staff delisting determination from the Nasdaq.
• Jaguar Health, Inc. JAGX was down, falling 16% to $5.34. Jaguar Health announced establishment of board of directors for newly formed joint venture Magdalena Biosciences.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $82.20 while gold traded up 0.1% at $1,930.70.

Silver traded down 1.4% to $23.595 on Monday while copper rose 0.2% to $4.2615.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.52%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.18% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 0.29%. The German DAX gained 0.46% French CAC 40 gained 0.52% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.18%.

The consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone increased by 1.1 points to -20.9 in January, recording the highest level since February 2022.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 adding 1.33% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.5%. Many Asian markets were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.

Economics

U.S. leading indicators fell 1% in December.

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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 103,856,210 cases with around 1,128,800 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,682,010 cases and 530,730 deaths, while France reported over 39,484,540 COVID-19 cases with 163,750 deaths. In total, there were at least 673,376,870 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,746,780 deaths.