Gold Moves Lower; US Crude Stocks Decline Last Week

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.27% to 37,758.26 while the NASDAQ rose 0.17% to 15,124.90. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.23% to 4,792.56.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares jumped by 0.6 on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 0.9%

Top Headline

The EIA said crude oil inventories in the U.S. declined by 6.911 million barrels in the week ending Dec. 22, falling the most in four months and compared to market estimates of a 2.704 million-barrel decline.

Equities Trading UP

Microbot Medical Inc. MBOT shares shot up 43% to $1.89 after the company announced the completion of its GLP pivotal pre-clinical study.

Shares of Cingulate Inc. CING got a boost, surging 129% to $9.14. On Tuesday, Cingulate received FDA guidance for CTx-1301 (dexmethylphenidate), its lead investigational product candidate for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

DouYu International Holdings Limited DOYU shares were also up, gaining 24% to $0.9005 after announcing a share repurchase program.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cytosorbents Corporation CTSO shares dropped 40% to $0.9852.
CytoSorbents released an update on the initial data analysis of primary safety and effectiveness endpoints and the final independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the pivotal U.S. and Canadian STAR-T trial.

Shares of Bluejay Diagnostics, Inc. BJDX were down 31% to $1.25. Bluejay Diagnostics announced pricing of $3.5 million public offering of 2,692,308 shares at $1.30 per share.

Velo3D, Inc. VLD was down, falling 32% to $0.4299 after the company announced a registered direct offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.9% to $72.69 while gold traded down 0.7% at $2,079.30.

Silver traded down 1% to $24.39 on Thursday while copper fell 1% to $3.9215.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.11%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.03% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.35% The German DAX fell 0.24% French CAC 40 fell 0.48% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.30%.

Spain's retail trade rose 5.2% year-over-year in November versus a revised 5.3% increase in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.42%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 2.52% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1.38%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.52%.

Hong Kong’s trade deficit widened to $27.9 billion in November from $27.1 billion in the year-ago month. Industrial production in Japan fell by 0.9% month-over-month in November compared to a final 1.3% increase in the earlier month, while retail sales in Japan climbed 5.3% year-over-year in November.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 12,000 to 218,000 in the week ending Dec. 23, compared to market estimates of 210,000.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods increased to $90.3 billion in November versus a revised $89.6 billion in the prior month.

Wholesale inventories declined by 0.2% month-over-month in November versus a 0.4% fall in the earlier month.

Pending home sales in the U.S. came in unchanged in November versus a revised 1.2% decline in October.

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

Crude oil inventories in the U.S. declined by 6.911 million barrels in the week ending Dec. 22, falling the most in four months and compared to market estimates of a 2.704 million-barrel decline.

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