Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; US Unemployment Rate Falls To 6.3%

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.28% to 31,143.90 while the NASDAQ rose 0.08% to 13,788.90. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.26% to 3,881.93.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 26,679,630 cases with around 455,870 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,802,590 confirmed cases and 154,820 deaths, while Brazil reported over 9,396,290 COVID-19 cases with 228,790 deaths. In total, there were at least 104,947,760 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,286,250 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 1.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American Resources Corp AREC, up 31%, and RigNet Inc RNET, up 10%.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

The US economy added 49,000 jobs in January versus market expectations for a 50,000 rise. However, the unemployment rate declined to 6.3% in January.

Equities Trading UP

Atlantic American Corporation AAME shares shot up 259% to $8.58.

Shares of LAIX Inc. LAIX got a boost, shooting 163% to $6.72 following a report a Chinese securities regulator approved the merging of two exchanges, Shenzhen's main board and the small- to medium-enterprise board.

Aurora Mobile Limited JG shares were also up, gaining 72% to $6.86. Aurora Mobile partnered with short video social platform Kuaishou Technology, also known as TikTok competitor, to drive the latter’s monetization efficacy.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

ATA Creativity Global AACG shares tumbled 40% to $8.51 on profit-taking after the stock rose 936% yesterday.

Shares of Document Security Systems, Inc. DSS were down 29% to $3.08 after the company priced its $34.5 million upsized public offering of common stock.

DAVIDsTEA Inc. DTEA was down, falling 19% to $5.55 after climbing 42% on Thursday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $56.80, while gold traded up 0.8% to $1,805.50.

Silver traded up 1.2% Friday to $26.54 while copper rose 1.3% to $3.5985.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.4%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.3%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 gained 1.1%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB surged 1.3%.

French current account gap increased to EUR 1.2 billion in December from EUR 0.72 billion a year ago, while payroll employment in the private sector fell 0.2% for the fourth quarter. Germany’s factory orders fell 1.9% in December.

Economics

The US economy added 49,000 jobs in January versus market expectations for a 50,000 rise. However, the unemployment rate declined to 6.3% in January.

The US trade deficit shrank to $66.6 billion in December from a revised $69 billion in the prior month. Imports to the US increased 1.5% to $256.6 billion in December, while exports rose 3.4% to $190 billion.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is scheduled for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Data on consumer credit for December will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET. Consumer credit is projected to rise $12.1 billion in December versus a $15.3 billion increase in November.

Check out the full economic calendar here