Gold Moves Lower; Dollar General Earnings Beat Estimates

U.S. stocks traded mostly higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.06% to 36,077.32 while the NASDAQ rose 1.09% to 14,301.04. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.66% to 4,579.41.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 3.1% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, health care shares fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline

Dollar General Corp DG reported better-than-expected third-quarter results.

Dollar General reported third-quarter FY23 sales growth of 2.4% year-on-year to $9.69 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $9.65 billion. EPS of $1.26 beat the consensus estimate of $1.19.

Equities Trading UP

Save Foods, Inc. SVFD shares shot up 200% to $6.45 after the company highlighted targeting of US carbon credit market following acquisition of majority ownership in newly- formed Nitrousink Ltd.

Shares of Cyngn Inc. CYN got a boost, shooting 87% to $0.4569 after the company announced the issuance of a new patent, US-11,837,089-B2, for the autonomous vehicle (AV) and driving solutions.

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. BNED shares were also up, gaining 29% to $1.3499 following upbeat quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

Troika Media Group, Inc. TRKA shares dropped 74% to $0.4995 after the company announced it filed for Chapter 11.

Shares of ZyVersa Therapeutics, Inc. ZVSA were down 37% to $1.35 after the company priced its $5 million public offering.

Phio Pharmaceuticals Corp. PHIO was down, falling 44% to $0.8901 as the company announced exercise of warrants for $2.8 million gross proceeds.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $69.92 while gold traded down 0.5% at $2,038.70.

Silver traded down 0.6% to $24.09 on Thursday while copper rose 1% to $3.7730.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.33%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.13% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.27% The German DAX fell 0.12% French CAC 40 fell 0.14%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.77%.

The Eurozone economy shrank by 0.1% in the third quarter versus a revised 0.1% expansion in the prior three-month period. The number of employed persons in the Eurozone increased by 0.2% from the earlier quarter to 168.7 million in the third quarter.

French trade deficit shrank to €8.6 billion in October versus a revised €8.87 billion in the prior month, while current account deficit increased to €2.9 billion in October from a revised €2.8 billion a month ago. Industrial production in Germany declined 0.4% month-over-month for October. The Halifax House Price Index fell by 1.0% year-over-year during November.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 1.76%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 0.71% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.09%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, fell 0.19%.

The index of coincident economic indicators in Japan rose to 115.9 in October versus a revised 115.7 in the previous month, while index of leading economic indicators fell to 108.7 in October versus a revised 109.3 a month ago. China's trade surplus widened to $68.39 billion in November from $66.49 billion in the year-ago period.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 1,000 to 220,000 in the week ending Dec. 2, compared to market estimates of 222,000.

U.S.-based employers announced plans to reduce 45,510 jobs during November.

The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index for the U.S. declined 2.1% month-over-month in November versus a 2.3% decline in October.

U.S. wholesale inventories declined by 0.4% month-over-month in October versus preliminary estimate of a 0.2% decline.

U.S. natural-gas supplies fell 117 billion cubic feet last week, the EIA said.

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