US Stocks Edge Lower; Bank of America Profit Tops Views

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping around 50 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.14% to 34,141.19 while the NASDAQ fell 0.40% to 10,956.69. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.45% to 3,965.34.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares gained by 0.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Praxis Precision Medicines, Inc. PRAX, up 45%, and Biomea Fusion, Inc. BMEA, up 7%.

In trading on Friday, financials shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Bank of America Corporation BAC reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Bank of America posted quarterly earnings of $0.85 per share, topping market estimates of $0.77 per share. The bank’s quarterly sales came in at $24.50 billion, versus expectations of $24.33 billion.

Equities Trading UP

• MGO Global Inc. MGOL shares shot up 55% to $7.74. MGO Global priced its 1.5 million share IPO at $5 per share.
• Shares of ZyVersa Therapeutics, Inc. ZVSA got a boost, shooting 39% to $3.58.
• HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. HTGM shares were also up, gaining 38% to $6.56.

Equities Trading DOWN

• BigBear.ai Holdings, Inc. BBAI shares tumbled 22% to $2.37. BigBear.Ai shares jumped 260% on Thursday after the company announced it has been awarded a multiple award $900 million Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract by the U.S. Air Force..
• Shares of Bakkt Holdings, Inc. BKKT were down 22% to $2.1814.
• MultiMetaVerse Holdings Limited. MMV was down, falling 14% to $2.96. MultiMetaVerse recently announced a letter of intent to acquire a majority equity stake in Taomee.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $78.89 while gold traded up 0.7% at $1,911.10.

Silver traded up 0.6% to $24.150 on Friday while copper fell 0.3% to $4.1830.

Euro zone

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

The Eurozone’s trade deficit widened to EUR 11.7 billion in November, from EUR 3.9 billion in the year-ago period. Industrial production in the Eurozone surged 1% month-over-month in November. Industrial production in the UK declined by 0.2% from a month ago in November, while the country posted a trade deficit of GBP 1.8 billion in November. The British economy grew by 0.1% in November from the previous month.

German economy expanded by 1.9% in 2022, slowing from a 2.6% growth in 2021, while industrial production in Italy declined by 0.3% from a month ago in November. Spanish consumer price inflation was revised lower to 5.7% year-over-year in December, while annual inflation rate in France came in at 5.9% in December.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 1.04%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1.01%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.25%.

Chinese trade surplus fell to $78.01 billion in December compared to a revised $93.21 billion in the same month of the previous year.

Economics

• Prices for US imports climbed 0.4% from a month ago in December, while export prices declined by 2.6% from a month earlier.
• The University of Michigan consumer sentiment climbed to 64.6 in January from 59.7 in December.

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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 103,426,740 cases with around 1,124,390 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,681,880 cases and 530,720 deaths, while France reported over 39,435,930 COVID-19 cases with 163,240 deaths. In total, there were at least 670,547,280 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,724,860 deaths.