Why U.S. Stocks Are Trading Higher; Retail Sales Rise This Much In June

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, following the release of several earnings results and economic reports.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 1.39% to 31,054.43 while the NASDAQ rose 0.89% to 11,351.81. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.17% to 3,834.60.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares rose 2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Citigroup Inc. C, up 8% and Wells Fargo & Company WFC up 6%.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares dipped by 0.8%.

Top Headline

US retail sales rose 1% month-over-month in June, exceeding market estimates of a 0.8% gain, and following a revised 0.1% decline in May.

Equities Trading UP

United Maritime Corporation USEA shares shot up 134% to $5.16. United Maritime, on Tuesday, announced acquisition of four oil tankers and filed for stock offering on Wednesday.

Shares of ToughBuilt Industries, Inc. TBLT got a boost, shooting 23% to $2.95 after gaining 10% on Thursday. ToughBuilt Industries recently announced its Q2 gross sales through Amazon were $3.56 million, representing a 20% year-over-year increase.

Vertical Aerospace Ltd. EVTL shares were also up, gaining 13% to $3.29 after the company announced FLYINGGROUP has conditionally pre-ordered up to 50 VX4 aircrafts.

Equities Trading DOWN

Codexis, Inc. CDXS shares tumbled 47% to $6.34 after the company issued Q2 and FY22 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

Shares of Harsco Corporation HSC were down 21% to $4.61 after the company updated its expected financial results for Q2 and FY22 outlook. The company expects Q2 U.S. GAAP operating loss from continuing operations of $(95) million - $(97) million (prior view for income of $17 million - $22 million).

10x Genomics, Inc. TXG was down, falling 22% to $33.85 after the company issued Q2 sales guidance below estimates.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2% to $97.73, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,703.80.

Silver traded up 1% to $18.41 on Friday while copper fell 0.9% to $3.1840.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 1.1%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.1%. The German DAX gained 1.75%, French CAC 40 rose 1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.1%.

The Eurozone reported a trade gap of EUR 26.3 in May, versus a year-ago surplus of EUR 12.0 billion. Passenger car registrations in the European Union dipped 15.4% year-over-year to 886,510 units in June. The annual inflation rate in Italy climbed 8% year-over-year in June, the highest since January 1986.

Economics

US retail sales rose 1% month-over-month in June, exceeding market estimates of a 0.8% gain, and following a revised 0.1% decline in May.

The New York Empire State Manufacturing Index climbed to 11.1 in July from -1.2 in the previous month.

Import prices in the US rose 0.2% from a month ago in June, while export prices rose by 0.7%.

Industrial production fell 0.2% from a month ago in June, missing market estimates of a 0.1% increase.

US business inventories increased 1.4% from a month ago in May.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 51.1 in July versus a record low level of 50 in June.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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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 91,060,220 cases with around 1,048,230 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,710,020 cases and 525,600 deaths, while Brazil reported over 33,142,150 COVID-19 cases with 674,840 deaths. In total, there were at least 565,639,980 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,382,680 deaths.