Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Imagination Technologies Signs New Deal With Apple

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.41% to 28655.31 while the NASDAQ rose 0.47% to 9,014.99. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.21% to 3,237.54.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 1.2% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Telaria Inc TLRA, up 10%, and Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. SNCR, up 6%.

In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

U.K. chipmaker Imagination Technologies Group plc has signed a new deal with Apple Inc. AAPL after a three-year breakup.

In April 2017, U.K. chipmaker Imagination Technologies Group plc saw its shares plummet by 70% after the California-based tech company said it wouldn't use the company's intellectual property any longer. Imagination Technologies didn't mention which IP it has agreed to share with Apple. According to Bloomberg, it is likely related to graphics and artificial intelligence.

Equities Trading UP

Synthesis Energy Systems, Inc. SES shares shot up 56% to $8.91 after the company was granted a patent titled 'Apparatus using multiple jets for gas delivery and methods of fluidizing.'

Shares of Cassava Sciences, Inc. SAVA got a boost, shooting up 33% to $6.90 after the company's CEO reported the purchase of 100k shares on Tuesday.

Recon Technology, Ltd. RCON shares were also up, gaining 20% to $2.75 after the company won a three-year automation system bid from Jidong Oilfield.

Equities Trading DOWN

DURECT Corporation DRRX shares tumbled 30% to $2.66 after the company announced DUR-928 did not demonstrate benefit over placebo in Phase 2a psoriasis trial. The company is discontinuing development.

Shares of Neovasc Inc. NVCN were down 28% to $3.8999 after the company announced a $10 million common stock offering priced at-the-market.

SRAX, Inc. SRAX was down, falling 15% to $2.13 after gaining 22.7% on Tuesday.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $61.05, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,524.70.

Silver traded up 0.3% Thursday to $17.965, while copper rose 0.5% to $2.8105.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.9%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.2%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.2%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.7%, and the French CAC 40 rose 1% while UK shares rose 0.9%.

Economics

Initial jobless claims fell 2,000 to 222,000 in the seven days ended December 28.

The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI fell to 52.4 in December, versus 52.6 in the prior month.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.