Crude Oil Moves Lower; Micron Issues Strong Forecast

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

The Dow traded up 0.58% to 37,296.40 while the NASDAQ rose 0.77% to 14,891.87. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.68% to 4,730.26.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares jumped by 1% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

Micron Technology, Inc. MU reported mixed first-quarter financial results and issued strong guidance on Wednesday.

Micron reported first-quarter revenue of $4.73 billion, which beat the consensus estimate of $4.27 billion. The company reported a quarterly loss of 95 cents per share, which missed analyst estimates for a loss of 91 cents per share, according to Benzinga Pro.

Equities Trading UP

ParaZero Technologies Ltd. PRZO shares shot up 29% to $1.5928 after the company appointed Nir Ben Moshe, a former senior director in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, as a specialist advisor.

Shares of HOOKIPA Pharma Inc. HOOK got a boost, surging 73% to $0.9771 after the company announced a $21.25 million equity investment from Gilead Sciences.

DMK Pharmaceuticals Corporation DMK shares were also up, gaining 52% to $0.8954. DMK Pharmaceuticals regained full rights to commercialize ZIMHI after the termination of an exclusive commercialization and distribution with US WorldMeds, LLC.

Equities Trading DOWN

Panbela Therapeutics, Inc. PBLA shares dropped 22% to $0.9325. Panbela Therapeutics entered into agreements with certain stockholders for $2 million private placement of existing warrants exercisable for 2,556,000 of its common stock, in aggregate, to exercise outstanding warrants at $0.78 per share in exchange for new warrants.

Shares of Clene Inc. CLNN were down 39% to $0.3117. Clene reported new data from 12-month long-term open label extension of CNM-Au8 treatment arm in HEALEY ALS platform trial.

Longeveron Inc. LGVN was down, falling 19% to $1.3201 after the company announced a $2.36 million registered direct offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $73.42 while gold traded up 0.2% at $2,052.50.

Silver traded down 0.2% to $24.58 on Thursday while copper rose 0.1% to $3.9085.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.29%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.32% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.02% The German DAX fell 0.33% French CAC 40 fell 0.31%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.39%.

The manufacturing climate indicator in France climbed to 100 in December versus 99 in the prior month. Industrial producer prices in Italy fell 12.6% year-over-year in November following a 9.5% decline a month ago.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 1.59%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.04% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.57%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.51%.

The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong fell to 2.6% in November compared to October’s one-year high level of 2.7%. Hong Kong’s current account surplus shrank to HKD 103.6 billion in the third quarter compared to HKD 117.3 billion in the year-ago period.

Economics

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index in the U.S. fell to -10.5 in December from -5.9 in the previous month.

Corporate profits in the U.S. increased by 3.7% from the prior period to $2.698 trillion in the third quarter.

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 205,000 in the week ending Dec. 16, compared to market expectations of 215,000.

The U.S. economy grew an annualized 4.9% in the third quarter, down from 5.2% in the second estimate, but matching the 4.9% reading in the advance estimate.

U.S. natural gas supplies fell 87 billion cubic feet for the latest week, the EIA said.

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