U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 150 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.19% to 44,968.22 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.84% to 19,847.18. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.41% to 6,095.78.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares surged by 0.8% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell by 1.4%.

Top Headline

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results after the market close on Thursday.

Apple reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of $124.3 billion, beating analyst estimates of $124.13 billion. The iPhone maker reported first-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.40 per share, beating analyst estimates of $2.36 per share. However, sales of its iPhone handset device declined to $69.14 billion from $69.70 billion in the year-ago period.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $72.76 while gold traded up 0.2% at $2,850.80.

Silver traded up 0.5% to $32.64 on Friday, while copper fell 1% to $4.2665.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, Germany's DAX 40 gained 0.2% and France's CAC 40 climbed 0.3%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.1%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.4%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 0.15% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.97%.

Economics

• U.S. personal income increased 0.4% month-over-month in December compared to a 0.3% gain in November.
• Personal spending climbed by 0.7% month-over-month to an annualized rate of $20.387 trillion in December.
• The core PCE price index in the US increased by 0.2% from the previous month for December.

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