Dow Gains 50 Points; US Jobless Claims Rise To 218,000

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining over 50 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.14% to 37,708.72 while the NASDAQ rose 0.15% to 15,122.12. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.18% to 4,790.25.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares jumped by 0.5% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 0.3%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 12,000 to 218,000 in the week ending Dec. 23, compared to market estimates of 210,000.

Equities Trading UP

Nova LifeStyle, Inc. NVFY shares shot up 243% to $5.32.

Shares of Cingulate Inc. CING got a boost, surging 138% to $9.51. On Tuesday, Cingulate Inc CING received FDA guidance for CTx-1301 (dexmethylphenidate), its lead investigational product candidate for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

SenesTech, Inc. SNES shares were also up, gaining 51% to $1.30. HC Wainwright & Co. analyst Amit Dayal maintained SenesTech with a Buy, adjusting target to $3.5 from $4.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cytosorbents Corporation CTSO shares dropped 36% to $1.0399.
CytoSorbents released an update on the initial data analysis of primary safety and effectiveness endpoints and the final independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the pivotal U.S. and Canadian STAR-T trial.

Shares of Bluejay Diagnostics, Inc. BJDX were down 31% to $1.25. Bluejay Diagnostics announced pricing of $3.5 million public offering of 2,692,308 shares at $1.30 per share.

RiskOn International, Inc. ROI was down, falling 27% to $0.3124. Ault Alliance disclosed that its majority beneficially owned subsidiary, RiskOn International, expects to announce its new generative artificial intelligence platform and launch a relationship with its principal technology partner on Jan. 3, 2024.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.3% to $73.18 while gold traded down 0.2% at $2,088.10.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $24.545 on Thursday while copper fell 0.5% to $3.9370.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.2% The German DAX fell 0.2% French CAC 40 fell 0.4% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.2%.

Spain's retail trade rose 5.2% year-over-year in November versus a revised 5.3% increase in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.42%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 2.52% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1.38%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.52%.

Hong Kong’s trade deficit widened to $27.9 billion in November from $27.1 billion in the year-ago month. Industrial production in Japan fell by 0.9% month-over-month in November compared to a final 1.3% increase in the earlier month, while retail sales in Japan climbed 5.3% year-over-year in November.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 12,000 to 218,000 in the week ending Dec. 23, compared to market estimates of 210,000.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods increased to $90.3 billion in November versus a revised $89.6 billion in the prior month.

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