Nasdaq Surges 100 Points; Tesla Beats Q4 Views

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 100 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.24% to 33,824.53 while the NASDAQ rose 1.05% to 11,432.45. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.54% to 4,037.88.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Consumer discretionary shares rose by 1.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. BOOT, up 8%, and Tesla, Inc. TSLA, up 9%.
• In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline

Tesla Inc TSLA reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results

Tesla reported fourth-quarter total vehicle production of 439,701, up some 44% year-over-year. Fourth-quarter deliveries came in at 405,278, up 31% year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

• Qualtrics International Inc. XM shares shot up 29% to $14.47 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued Q1 revenue guidance above estimates.
• Shares of Nemaura Medical Inc. NMRD got a boost, shooting 22% to $3.2250 after the company received first purchase order from U.S. health provider HealthFleet Inc.
• TC Biopharm (Holdings) Plc TCBP shares were also up, gaining 12% to $4.5098. HC Wainwright & Co. initiated coverage on TC BioPharm with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $9.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Panbela Therapeutics, Inc. PBLA shares tumbled 36% to $1.74 after the company reported pricing of $15 million public offering at $2.75 per share.
• Shares of Ocuphire Pharma, Inc. OCUP were down 21% to $2.9850 after the company reported topline results from ZETA-1 Phase 2 trial of oral APX3330 in diabetic retinopathy and plans for end-of-Phase 2 meeting with the FDA. HC Wainwright & Co maintained Ocuphire Pharma with a Buy and lowered the price target from $26 to $20.
• NeoVolta Inc. NEOV was down, falling 19% to $2.2001.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.2% to $81.87 while gold traded down 0.4% at $1,935.30.

Silver traded up 0.4% to $24.025 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.2% to $4.2510.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.6%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.9%. The German DAX gained 0.2% French CAC 40 rose 0.9% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.2%.

Labor productivity in the UK increased by 0.1% on quarter during the three months to September, while car production in the country declined 17.9% year-over-year in December.

Consumer confidence in Italy fell to 100.9 in January versus an 11-month high level of 102.5 in the prior month, while manufacturing confidence rose to 102.7 from 101.5. Spain's unemployment rate increased to 12.87% in the fourth quarter from 12.67% in the prior period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.12% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 2.37%.

Hong Kong trade deficit increased to $51.6 billion in December versus $32.8 billion in the year-ago period. Singapore’s manufacturing production dropped by 3.1% year-over-year in December.

Economics

• The US GDP grew by 2.1% in 2022, compared to a 5.9% expansion in 2021.
• The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to -0.49 in December from -0.51 in the prior month.
• The US trade deficit in goods increased to $90.3 billion in December versus a near two-year low level of $82.9 billion a month ago.
• Durable goods orders in the US climbed 5.6% month-over-month in December.
• US jobless claims dropped by 6,000 from the prior week to 186,000 in the week ending Jan. 21, 2023.
• Building permits in the US dropped 1.0% from a month ago to an annual rate of 1.337 million in December.
• Wholesale inventories rose 0.1% in December, totalling $934.1 billion.

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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 104,015,450 cases with around 1,130,960 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,682,330 cases and 530,730 deaths, while France reported over 39,498,180 COVID-19 cases with 164,000 deaths. In total, there were at least 674,133,160 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,752,550 deaths.