S&P 500 Rises Over 0.5%; US Pending Home Sales Increase Sharply

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the NASDAQ Composite gaining around 100 points on Monday.

The Dow traded up 0.40% to 32,949.23 while the NASDAQ rose 0.93% to 11,500.59. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.58% to 3,992.95.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Consumer discretionary shares rose 1.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Fisker Inc FSR, up 26%, and Youdao, Inc. DAO, up 11%.
• In trading on Monday, consumer staples shares fell by 0.5%.

 

Top Headline

Pending home sales in the US jumped 8.1% month-over-month in January versus a revised 1.1% growth in December.

 

Equities Trading UP

• Blackboxstocks Inc. BLBX shares shot up 54% to $0.8480. Blackboxstocks Form 4 filing showed President and CEO Gust Kepler bought 1.13 million shares at an average price of $3 per share.
• Shares of Lucira Health, Inc. LHDX got a boost, shooting 247% to $0.4856 after the company announced FDA authorization for its at-home combination COVID-19 & flu test.
• Fisker Inc. FSR shares were also up, gaining 26% to $7.13 after the company reported Q4 financial results. The company said Q4 and FY22 operational results were better than expected. FY22 total spending was below the company's anticipated range and its cash balance at year end 2022 was ahead of expectations.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

• Smith Micro Software, Inc. SMSI shares tumbled 43% to $1.4250 after the company announced notice of termination from Tier 1 carrier for the company's family safety solution.
• Shares of TEGNA Inc. TGNA were down 20% to $17.50 after the Federal Communications Commission said it would hold a hearing to review the company's pending acquisition by Standard General. The company also posted downbeat quarterly results.
• Genprex, Inc. GNPX was down, falling 15% to $1.1550 after the company announced a $4 million registered direct offering with an institutional investor.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.5% to $75.14 while gold traded up 0.5% at $1,825.20.

Silver traded down 0.8% to $20.78 on Monday while copper rose 1.4% to $4.01.

 

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.07%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.72% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.23%. The German DAX gained 1.13% French CAC 40 climbed 1.51% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.7%.

Loans to households in the Eurozone climbed 3.6% year-over-year in January. Consumer confidence in Italy climbed to 104 in February from 100.9 in the prior month, while manufacturing confidence in the country came in unchanged at 102.8 in February.

 

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.11%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.33% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropping 0.28%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.3%.

Imports to Hong Kong dipped 30.2% year-over-year to $316.3 billion in January, while exports declined 36.7% year-over-year to $290.9 billion. The index of coincident economic indicators in Japan rose to 99.1 in December from a flash reading of 98.8, while index of leading economic indicators came in at 97.2 in December following a final reading of 97.7 in November.

 

Economics

• Durable goods orders in the US dropped 4.5% month-over-month in January, the most since April 2020.
• Pending home sales in the US jumped 8.1% month-over-month in January versus a revised 1.1% growth in December.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ general business activity index for manufacturing in Texas fell 5.1 points to a reading of -13.5 in February.

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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 105,251,150 cases with around 1,145,290 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,686,200 cases and 530,770 deaths, while France reported over 39,615,730 COVID-19 cases with 164,870 deaths. In total, there were at least 679,726,820 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,798,630 deaths.