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

The Dow traded up 0.03% to 43,252.87 while the NASDAQ rose 0.55% to 18,474.05. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.33% to 5,861.03.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 1.2% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, energy shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

American Express Co AXP shares fell around 5% on Friday after the company reported results for the third quarter.

The company said quarterly revenue (net of interest expense) grew 8% year-on-year to $16.64 billion, marginally missing the analyst consensus estimate of $16.67 billion. Adjusted EPS of $3.49 beat the analyst consensus estimate of $3.28.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• United States Cellular Corporation USM shares shot up 12% to $65.62 after the company announced the sale of a portion of its retained spectrum licenses to Verizon for $1 billion.
• Shares of Bright Minds Biosciences Inc. DRUG got a boost, surging 196% to $64.35. The company announced a $35 million non-brokered private placement.
• SOBR Safe, Inc. SOBR shares were also up, gaining 55% to $12.30 after the company announced it filed a form RW and will not pursue a public offering at this time.

Equities Trading DOWN

• MGP Ingredients, Inc. MGPI shares dropped 26% to $60.24 after the company issued soft preliminary guidance and lowered its 2024 financial outlook.
• Shares of Lilium N.V. LILM were down 11% to $0.5101. On Thursday, Canaccord Genuity downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold and cut its price target from $1.85 to $0.70.
• CVS Health Corporation CVS was down, falling 8% to $58.77 after the company cut its third-quarter outlook.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.2% to $69.84 while gold traded up 0.9% at $2,731.90.

Silver traded up 2.9% to $32.705 on Friday, while copper rose 1.2% to $4.3785.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, Germany’s DAX rose 0.31% and France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.35%. Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.1%, while London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.52%.

Construction output in the Eurozone fell by 2.5% year-over-year in August compared to a revised 2.3% decline in the previous month. The current account surplus in the Eurozone increased to €35.2 billion in August from €26.8 billion in the year-ago period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.18%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 3.61%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 2.91% and India’s BSE Sensex gaining 0.27%.

Economics

• U.S. housing starts fell by 0.5% from the previous month to an annualized rate of 1.354 million units in September.
• Building permits declined by 2.9% to an annual rate of 1.428 million in September.

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