Dow Surges 300 Points; US Current Account Deficit Narrows In Third Quarter

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining around 300 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.93% to 33,156.76 while the NASDAQ rose 0.58% to 10,608.21. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.72% to 3,849.10.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 1.2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NIKE, Inc. NKE, up 15%, and Six Flags Entertainment Corporation SIX, up 11%.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares rose by just 0.2%.

Top Headline

The US current account deficit shrank by 9.1%, to $217.1 billion in the third quarter versus a revised $238.7 billion in the prior quarter and compared with market estimates of $222.0 billion.

Equities Trading UP

• Sintx Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SINT) shares shot up 51% to $11.25 after the company was awarded Phase I contract for $150,000 from the Missile Defense Agency for electrochemical machining.
• Shares of F-star Therapeutics, Inc. FSTX got a boost, shooting 27% to $5.48.
• Butterfly Network, Inc. BFLY shares were also up, gaining 15% to $2.5385. Butterfly Network recently completed successful deployment of 500 Butterfly iQ+ devices and training of 500+ healthcare workers across 224 facilities in Kenya.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Rite Aid Corporation RAD shares tumbled 14% to $3.7777 after the company reported results for its third quarter.
• Shares of Caravelle International Group (NASDAQ: CACO) were down 20% to $1.6942 after dropping 57% on Tuesday.
• Pebblebrook Hotel Trust PEB was down, falling 9% to $13.14 after the company lowered its FY22 FFO per share guidance.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.3% to $77.84 while gold traded up 0.2% at $1,828.20.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $24.26 on Wednesday while copper slipped 0.1% to $3.7990.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.1%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.2%. The German DAX rose 1%, French CAC 40 climbed 1.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.1%.

The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator in Germany improved to -37.8 heading into January compared to a revised reading of -40.1 in December.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 0.68% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.34%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.17%.

Hong Kong’s current account surplus increased to HKD 115.8 billion in the third quarter from HKD 91 billion in the year-ago period.

Economics

The US current account deficit shrank by 9.1%, to $217.1 billion in the third quarter versus a revised $238.7 billion in the prior quarter and compared with market estimates of $222.0 billion.

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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 101,865,920 cases with around 1,113,800 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,677,440 cases and 530,680 deaths, while France reported over 38,971,110 COVID-19 cases with 160,740 deaths. In total, there were at least 659,146,070 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,676,260 deaths.