Nasdaq Jumps 150 Points; Crude Oil Up 1%

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones turning higher on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.32% to 33,150.24 while the NASDAQ rose 1.44% to 11,008.70. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.86% to 3,932.28.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares rose by 2.7% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included So-Young International Inc. SY, up 15%, and uCloudlink Group Inc. UCL, up 10%.
• In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

US existing home sales dropped 1.5% to an annual rate of 4.02 million in December, versus market expectations of 3.96 million.

Equities Trading UP

• Ally Financial Inc. ALLY shares shot up 20% to $31.50 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.
• Shares of Wayfair Inc. W got a boost, shooting 21% to $46.93 after the company announced a 10% workforce reduction, including 18% of corporate employees.
• Astronics Corporation ATRO shares were also up, gaining 35% to $13.99 after the company announced unaudited preliminary Q4 sales are expected to be in the range of $155 million to $160 million, exceeding the company's earlier guidance of $140 million to $150 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

• FARO Technologies, Inc. FARO shares tumbled 24% to $27.00 after the company announced pricing of a $60 million convertible senior notes offering.
• Shares of Windtree Therapeutics, Inc. WINT were down 23% to $0.1650. Windtree Therapeutics announced plans to raise $1.0 million from the exercise of previously issued warrants.
• Rayonier Advanced Materials Inc. RYAM was down, falling 10% to $6.09. Rayonier Advanced Materials said its wholly owned subsidiary, Rayonier A.M. Products Inc, decided not to pursue at this time its private offering of $325 million of senior secured notes.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $81.10 while gold traded up 0.2% at $1,926.70.

Silver traded up 0.4% to $23.96 on Friday while copper rose 0.1% to $4.2370.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.37%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.42%. The German DAX surged 0.76% French CAC 40 gained 0.63% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.7%.

The annual producer inflation in Germany eased to 21.6% in December from 28.2% in the previous month. Retail sales in the UK dropped 1% month-over-month in December versus a revised 0.5% decline in November, while GfK Consumer Confidence indicator in the country declined to -45 in January from -42 a month ago.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Friday, with the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 1.82%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.76%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.56%.

The annual inflation rate in Japan increased to 4.0% during December, recording the highest level since January 1991. The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong accelerated to 2% in December from 1.8% in the prior two consecutive months, while business confidence indicator in the country rose to 6 during the first quarter from 4 in the earlier period. The People's Bank of China kept its key lending rates unchanged at its recent fixing.

Economics

US existing home sales dropped 1.5% to an annual rate of 4.02 million in December, versus market expectations of 3.96 million.

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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 103,808,540 cases with around 1,128,330 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,681,880 cases and 530,720 deaths, while France reported over 39,472,270 COVID-19 cases with 163,700 deaths. In total, there were at least 672,676,630 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,740,380 deaths.