U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 300 points on Friday.
Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 1.02% to 33,265.17 while the NASDAQ rose 0.72% to 10,379.71. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.03% to 3,847.29.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares gained by 2.2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included HighPeak Energy, Inc. HPK, up 10%, and DCP Midstream, LP DCP, up 6%.
In trading on Friday, health care shares dropped by 0.1%.
Top Headline
The US economy added 223,000 jobs in December, the least since December 2020, following a revised 256,000 increase in November, and above market estimates of 200,000.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in December. Average hourly earnings climbed 0.3% to $32.82 in December.
Equities Trading UP
- Aehr Test Systems AEHR shares shot up 35% to $23.26 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 EPS and sales results and announced it receieved a follow-on production order from its second major silicon carbide semiconductor customer for an additional production FOX-XP multi-wafer test and burn-in system configured with Aehr's fully integrated and automated WaferPak Aligner.
- Shares of Sight Sciences, Inc. SGHT got a boost, shooting 26% to $14.90. Stifel upgraded Sight Sciences from Hold to Buy and raised the price target from $10 to $15.
- Immunome, Inc. IMNM shares were also up, gaining 14% to $5.35 after the company and AbbVie announced a strategic collaboration to discover multiple novel oncology targets. Immunome will receive a $30 million upfront payment with the potential for milestones and royalties.
Equities Trading DOWN
- Fate Therapeutics, Inc. FATE shares tumbled 63% to $4.11 after the company announced termination of its collaboration agreement with Janssen, pipeline prioritization, next-generation programs and key 2023 initiatives.
- Shares of Graphite Bio, Inc. GRPH were down 43% to $1.7550 after the company reported it is voluntarily pausing the Phase 1/2 CEDAR study of nulabeglogene autogedtemcel (nula-cel) for sickle cell disease due to a serious adverse event in the first patient dosed with nula-cel.
- Atai Life Sciences N.V. ATAI was down, falling 39% to $1.6015 after the company announced Perception Neuroscience's Phase 2a clinical trial did not meet its primary endpoint.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $74.77 while gold traded up 1.3% at $1,864.40.
Silver traded down 2.2% to $23.94 on Friday while copper rose 1% to $3.86.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.6%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.6% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.7%. The German DAX gained 0.3%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.6% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.8%.
Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone eased to 9.2% in December, the lowest in four months, while retail sales rose by 0.8% from a month ago in November.
The S&P Global/CIPS UK construction PMI fell to 48.8 in December from 50.4 in the prior month, while the Halifax house price index rose 2% year-over-year in December versus a 4.6% increase a month ago. Factory orders in Germany fell 5.3% month-over-month in November, while retail sales in the country rose 1.1% month-over-month in November.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 0.29%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index adding 0.08%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.59% during the session.
Foreign exchange reserves in Hong Kong rose to $424 billion in December, the highest since August. The au Jibun Bank Japan Services PMI rose to 51.1 in December compared to a final reading of 50.3 in November, while average cash earnings in the country rose by 0.5% year-over-year in November.
Economics
- The US economy added 223,000 jobs in December, the least since December 2020, following a revised 256,000 increase in November, and above market estimates of 200,000.
- The unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in December.
- Average hourly earnings climbed 0.3% to $32.82 in December.
- The ISM Services PMI declined to 49.6 in December, signalling the first contraction in the services activity since May 2020.
- US factory orders fell by 1.8% 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 103,048,880 cases with around 1,120,800 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,680,600 cases and 530,700 deaths, while France reported over 39,381,820 COVID-19 cases with 162,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 667,484,690 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,707,270 deaths.
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