U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 200 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.84% to 33,040.70 while the NASDAQ rose 1.72% to 12,916.67. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 1.02% to 4,193.19.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Consumer discretionary shares rose by 2.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included GigaCloud Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:GCT), up 18%, and PDD Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PDD), up 17%.
• In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell 0.8%.

Top Headline

Big Lots Inc (NYSE:BIG) shares dropped around 15% on Friday after the company reported first-quarter results.

The company reported a first-quarter FY23 sales decline of 18.3% year-on-year to $1.124 billion, missing the consensus of $1.19 billion. Adjusted EPS loss of $(3.40) missed the analyst consensus of $(1.77).

Equities Trading UP

• Onfolio Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ONFO) shares shot up 64% to $1.9209 after the company announced it completed development of a generative AI search tool.
• Shares of MediaAlpha, Inc. (NYSE:MAX) got a boost, shooting 32% to $10.00 after White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. and WM Hinson commenced a tender offer for up to 5 million shares of MediaAlpha stock.
• Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) shares were also up, gaining 27% to $62.81 after the company reported strong first-quarter results and said it expects AI revenue to at least double in 2024.

Equities Trading DOWN

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $72.69 while gold traded down 0.2% at $1,940.30.

Silver traded up 1.3% to $23.21 on Friday while copper rose 2% to $3.6582.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.25%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.88% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.99% The German DAX climbed 1.26% French CAC 40 rose 1.38% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.22%.

Consumer confidence in Italy fell to 105.1 in May from 105.5 in April, while manufacturing confidence index in Italy dropped to 101.4 in May versus a revised reading of 102.8. The consumer confidence indicator in France came un unchanged at 83 in May. Retail sales volumes in the UK increased by 0.5% from a month ago in April.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.37% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.35%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 1%.

The index of leading economic indicators in Japan fell to 97.7 in March from a final reading of 98.2 a month ago, while index of coincident economic indicators rose to 98.8 in March from 98.7 in the previous month. Retail sales in Australia came in unchanged from the previous month at AUD 35.3 billion in April.

Economics

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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 107,081,650 cases with around 1,164,930 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,988,420 cases and 531,850 deaths, while France reported over 40,070,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,200 deaths. In total, there were at least 689,274,730 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,882,700 deaths.