Crude Oil Rises Over 1%; Processa Pharmaceuticals Shares Slide

U.S. stocks traded mostly higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 1% on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.02% to 37,257.79 while the NASDAQ rose 1.19% to 15,032.26. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.49% to 4,762.36.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose by 2% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, health care shares dipped by 1.1%.

Top Headline

The EIA said crude oil inventories in the U.S. declined by 2.492 million barrels in the week ending Jan. 12, 2024, compared to market estimates of a 0.313 million-barrel decline.

Equities Trading UP

Agrify Corporation AGFY shares shot up 34% to $1.5802 after the company announced it entered into a multi-million dollar sales agreement with Ocean Deep/Golden Lake Business Park.

Shares of M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. MDC got a boost, surging 18% to $62.79 after the company announced it will be acquired by Sekisui House.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited TSM shares were also up, gaining 8% to $111.64 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aravive, Inc. ARAV shares dropped 46% to $0.0596. Aravive intends to voluntarily terminate the listing of its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

Shares of Processa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PCSA were down 24% to $0.2105. Processa Pharmaceuticals said it will effect a 1-for-20 reverse stock split.

eHealth, Inc. EHTH was down, falling 20% to $5.57. Craig-Hallum analyst George Sutton downgraded eHealth from Buy to Hold.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $73.61 while gold traded up 0.6% at $2,019.10.

Silver traded up 0.7% to $22.82 on Thursday while copper rose 0.4% to $3.7495.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.59%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.22% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.16% The German DAX gained 0.77% French CAC 40 rose 1.15% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.81%.

Construction output in the Eurozone fell by 2.2% year-over-year in November, while current account surplus rose to EUR 31.7 billion in November versus a revised EUR 6.6 billion in the year-ago period. Passenger car registrations in the European Union declined 3.3% year-over-year to 867.1 thousand units in December.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.03%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.75% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.43%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, fell 0.44%.

Hong Kong’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate came in unchanged at 2.9% in the three months ending December. Industrial production in Japan fell by 0.9% from a month ago in November, while Japan's core machinery orders declined 4.9% month-over-month in November.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 16,000 to 187,000 in the week ending January 18, compared to market estimates of 207,000.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index increased 2.2 points to a reading of -10.6 in January from -12.8 a month ago, versus market estimates of -7.

Housing starts fell 4.3% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 1.46 million in December, while building permits increased by 1.9% to an annual rate of 1.495 million in December.

The EIA said crude oil inventories in the U.S. declined by 2.492 million barrels in the week ending Jan. 12, 2024, compared to market estimates of a 0.313 million-barrel decline.

U.S. natural-gas supplies fell 154 billion cubic feet during the week ended Jan. 12, 2024, the EIA said.

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