Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Gold Records Lowest Finish In Over Six Weeks; Clearfield Shares Gain On Upbeat Results

US stocks gained toward the end of trading session after opening on a weak note. Apple Inc. AAPL reported better-than-expected earnings results for its first quarter after the closing bell on Thursday.

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.42% to 34,303.02 while the NASDAQ rose 1.21% to 13,514.75. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.89% to 4,364.88.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares jumped 2.9% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Clearfield, Inc. CLFD, up 17% and Park City Group, Inc. PCYG up 18%.

In trading on Friday, energy shares dipped 0.8%.

Top Headline

Gold prices recorded their weakest settlement in more than six weeks, with April gold declining 0.5%, or $8.40, to close at $1,786.60 an ounce on Friday.

Equities Trading UP

Clearfield, Inc. CLFD shares shot up 17% to $57.03 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results.

Shares of Provention Bio, Inc. PRVB got a boost, shooting 22% to $4.1513 after the company announced its intent to resubmit the teplizumab BLA for the delay of clinical type 1 diabetes in at-risk individuals following its Type B pre-BLA resubmission meeting with the FDA.

Vaccinex, Inc. VCNX shares were also up, gaining 22% to $1.12. Vaccinex announced a private placement of approximately 5.9 million at $1.11 per share for about $6.6 million gross proceeds.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Williams Industrial Services Group Inc. WLMS shares tumbled 28% to $2.2094 after the company issued weak sales forecast for FY22.

Shares of Volcon, Inc. VLCN were down 21% to $2.97. Volcon priced its underwritten public offering of 6.67 million shares of common stock at $3 per share.

Qurate Retail, Inc. QRTEA was down, falling 20% to $6.18. Qurate Retail said it sees preliminary Q4 retail revenue down 8% to 9%.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $86.70, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,786.60.

Silver traded down 1.7% Friday to $22.285 while copper fell 2.1% to $4.3290.

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Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.02%, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.17%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.1%. The German DAX dipped 1.32%, French CAC 40 declined 0.82% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.18%.

Manufacturing confidence in Italy declined to 113.9 in January from a revised 115 in the previous month, while consumer confidence fell to 114.2 from 117.7. The Germany’s economy shrank 0.7% on quarter during the final three months of 2021, versus market expectations for a 0.3% fall. Import prices in Germany surged 24% year-over-year in December.

Producer prices in France rose 1% from a month ago in December, while the country’s economy expanded 0.7% quarter-over-quarter in the fourth quarter. Spanish economy grew 2.0 percent on quarter in the final three months of 2021.

Economics

Personal income in the US increased 0.3% from a month ago in December, while personal spending dropped 0.6% in December. The personal consumption expenditure price index, meanwhile, surged 5.8 percent year-over-year in December.

The employment cost index rose 1.0% quarter-over-quarter during the last three months of 2021.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment was revised lower to 67.2 in January versus a preliminary reading of 68.8.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs gained by 4 to 495 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

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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 74,695,330 cases with around 902,140 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 40,622,700 cases and 492,350 deaths, while Brazil reported over 24,782,920 COVID-19 cases with 625,160 deaths. In total, there were at least 367,331,100 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,658,530 deaths.