Dow Drops 200 Points; Accenture Posts Upbeat Results

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 200 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.66% to 32,983.04 while the NASDAQ fell 0.19% to 10,789.90. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.63% to 3,871.22.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 0.3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included VEON Ltd. VEON, up 9%, and Telesat Corporation TSAT, up 8%.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares tumbled by 2.2%.

Top Headline

Accenture plc ACN reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter on Friday.

Accenture reported first-quarter FY23 revenue growth of 5% year-on-year to $15.7 billion, beating the consensus of $15.6 billion. EPS of $3.08 beat the consensus of $2.91.

Accenture sees Q2 FY23 revenue of $15.20 billion - $15.75 billion versus the consensus of $15.59 billion. It now sees EPS of $11.20 - $11.52, up from the prior $11.09 - $11.41, versus the consensus of $11.36.

Equities Trading UP

• Maxar Technologies Inc. MAXR shares shot up 120% to $50.76 after the company announced it will be acquired by Advent International for $6.4 billion.
• Shares of Trean Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TIG) got a boost, shooting 92% to $6.00 after the company announced a definitive agreement to be acquired by Altaris Capital Partners for $6.15 per share in cash.
• Exact Sciences Corporation EXAS shares were also up, gaining 24% to $55.44 after competitor Guardant Health reported results from a study of its colorectal cancer detection blood test.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Synaptogenix, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPX) shares tumbled 68% to $1.5291 after the company announced Phase 2 clinical trial of Bryostatin-1 for Advanced Alzheimer's disease. The company said endpoint was not met with statistical significance.
• Shares of Cosmos Holdings Inc. COSM were down 59% to $3.40 following effect of 1:25 reverse stock split.
• BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. BVXV was down, falling 56% to $3.84 after the company priced its 1.6 million unit offering at $5.00 per unit.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.8% to $73.99 while gold traded up 0.5% at $1,796.10.

Silver traded down 0.2% to $23.27 on Friday while copper rose 0.2% to $3.7710.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.9%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.1%. The German DAX dropped 0.4%, French CAC 40 fell 1.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.1%.

The Eurozone reported a trade deficit of EUR 26.5 billion in October, the with imports increasing by 30.7% to EUR 279.3 billion. The consumer price inflation in the Eurozone increased to 10.1% year-over-year in November versus a preliminary reading of 10.0%. The annual inflation rate in Italy came in at 11.8% in November, in line with preliminary reading.

The S&P Global Flash Eurozone manufacturing PMI rose to 47.8 in December from 47.1 in the previous month, while services PMI rose to 49.1 from 48.5. The S&P Global/CIPS services PMI for the UK climbed to 50.0 in December from 48.8 in the prior month, while manufacturing PMI fell to 44.7 from 46.5. French composite PMI declined to 48 in December from 48.7 a month ago, while German composite PMI increased to 48.9 in December from 46.3.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 1.87% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.42%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.02%.

Hong Kong’s unemployment rate fell to 3.7% from 3.8% in the prior month. Japanese manufacturing PMI fell to 48.8 in December from a final reading of 49 in November, while services PMI rose to 51.7 in December. The Judo Bank Australian composite PMI declined to 47.3 in December compared to 48 in the earlier month.

Economics

• The S&P Global manufacturing PMI declined to 46.2 in December from 47.7 in the previous month, and compared to market estimates of 47.7.
• The S&P Global services PMI dropped to 44.4 in December from 46.2 a month ago and compared to market views of 46.8.

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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 101,714,150 cases with around 1,112,790 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,676,690 cases and 530,660 deaths, while France reported over 38,745,520 COVID-19 cases with 160,220 deaths. In total, there were at least 656,566,410 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,668,030 deaths.