Nasdaq Falls 100 Points; Dermata Therapeutics Shares Surge

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite dropping around 100 points on Friday.

The Dow traded down 0.77% to 32,964.68 while the NASDAQ fell 0.99% to 10,374.49. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.88% to 3,815.46.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 0.2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Borr Drilling Limited BORR, up 11%, and Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. CLMT, up 5%.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell 1.1%.

Top Headline

The Chicago PMI rose to 44.9 points in December from 37.20 points in the prior month, which was the weakest reading since June 2020.

Equities Trading UP

• Palisade Bio, Inc. PALI shares shot up 110% to $6.78. Palisade Bio announced $2.5 million registered direct offering and concurrent private placement priced above market under Nasdaq rules.
• Shares of Silo Pharma, Inc. SILO got a boost, shooting 53% to $5.23 after the company announced study results of SPU-21 for arthritis. The company said SPU-21 is effective in controlling arthritis progression.
• Dermata Therapeutics, Inc. DRMA shares were also up, gaining 97% to $0.3938 after the company requested to withdraw its registration on Form S-1 and said it does not intend to pursue the contemplated public offering.

Equities Trading DOWN

• UP Fintech Holding Limited TIGR shares tumbled 26% to $3.5350 after the China Securities Regulatory Commission reported the companies have conducted illegal securities business.
• Shares of Futu Holdings Limited FUTU were down 27% to $43.14. Tencent Holding backed Chinese online broker Futu Holdings unexpectedly deferred its Hong Kong listing less than a day before its anticipated debut on December 30.
• Hoth Therapeutics, Inc. HOTH was down, falling 20% to $8.57 after the company announced a $10 million private placement priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $78.77 while gold traded down 0.1% at $1,824.70.

Silver traded down 1% to $24.02 on Friday while copper fell 0.6% to $3.7995.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.94%, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.81% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.74%. The German DAX dropped 1.05%, French CAC 40 fell 0.97% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.92%.

Spanish current account surplus narrowed to EUR 2.7 billion in October, from EUR 3.5 billion in the year-ago month. The annual inflation rate in Spain eased to 5.8% in December from 6.8% a month ago. The Nationwide House Price Index in the UK rose by 2.8% year-over-year in December.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Friday, with the Japan’s Nikkei rising 0.01%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.20%, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.51%.

India's fiscal deficit increased to INR 9.78 trillion in April-November compared to INR 6.96 trillion in the year-ago period. Chinese current account surplus widened to $144.3 billion in the third quarter versus $82.6 billion surplus in the year-ago period.

Economics

The Chicago PMI rose to 44.9 points in December from 37.20 points in the prior month, which was the weakest reading since June 2020.

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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 102,477,920 cases with around 1,117,750 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,679,260 cases and 530,690 deaths, while France reported over 39,270,370 COVID-19 cases with 161,840 deaths. In total, there were at least 664,190,060 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,694,450 deaths.