U.S. stocks traded mostly higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining around 50 points on Tuesday.

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.15% to 32,808.22 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01% to 10,546.63. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.05% to 3,819.49.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 0.7% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NextDecade Corporation (NASDAQ:NEXT), up 6%, and Uranium Energy Corp. (NYSE:UEC), up 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares tumbled by 1.1%.

Top Headline

Housing starts in the US fell 0.5% to an annualized rate of 1.427 million in November, while building permits dipped 11.2 percent from a month ago to an annual rate of 1.342 million in November.

Equities Trading UP

• Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ: VRNA) shares shot up 42% to $19.08 after the company announced ensifentrine met primary and key secondary endpoints in the Phase 3 ENHANCE-1 trial for COPD.
• Shares of MediaAlpha, Inc. (NYSE:MAX) got a boost, shooting 16% to $10.65. JP Morgan upgraded MediaAlpha from Neutral to Overweight and raised the price target from $12 to $14.
• EverQuote, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVER) shares were also up, gaining 15% to $12.15 after JPMorgan upgraded the stock from Underweight to Overweight and raised its price target from $8 to $15.

Equities Trading DOWN

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $75.90 while gold traded up 1.2% at $1,818.80.

Silver traded up 3.4% to $24.015 on Tuesday while copper rose 0.2% to $3.7920.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.3%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.7%. The German DAX fell 0.5%, French CAC 40 fell 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.1%.

The Eurozone recorded a current account deficit of EUR 4.4 billion in October versus a year-ago surplus of EUR 6.51 billion. Italy’s current account surplus shrank to EUR 710 million in October from EUR 3,024 million in the year-ago month.

The annual producer inflation in Germany declined to 28.2% in November from 34.5% in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Tuesday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 2.46% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declining 1.33%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.07%.

The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong came in at 1.8% in November, the same as in the earlier month. The Bank of Japan kept its key short-term interest rate unchanged at -0.1%.

Economics

Housing starts in the US fell 0.5% to an annualized rate of 1.427 million in November, while building permits dipped 11.2 percent from a month ago to an annual rate of 1.342 million in November.

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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 101,825,070 cases with around 1,113,300 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,677,340 cases and 530,670 deaths, while France reported over 38,899,900 COVID-19 cases with 160,610 deaths. In total, there were at least 658,535,310 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,674,360 deaths.