Dow Surges Over 600 Points, Gold Jumps 1.5%

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones index jumping more than 600 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 1.55% to 43,000.53 while the NASDAQ rose 1.65% to 19,693.06. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.53% to 5,956.61.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares jumped by 2.4% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.4%.

Top Headline

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs climbed by 1 to 483 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $69.43 while gold traded up 1.5% at $2,648.30.

Silver traded up 2.7% to $30.210 on Friday, while copper rose 0.8% to $4.1075.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 dipped 0.88%, Germany's DAX fell 0.43% and France's CAC 40 declined 0.27%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.24%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.26%.

Consumer confidence in the Eurozone declined by 0.8 points to a reading of -14.5 in December.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.29%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.16%, China's Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.06% and India's BSE Sensex falling 1.49%.

Economics

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