Dow Jumps Over 300 Points; US Industrial Production Beats Estimates

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining over 300 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.76% to 43,482.39 while the NASDAQ rose 1.36% to 19,601.89. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.88% to 5,989.58.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares surged by 1.4% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

U.S. industrial production rose by 0.9% in December, topping market estimates of a 0.3% increase.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Nukkleus Inc. NUKK shares shot up 80% to $36.99 after the company announced it resolved its Nasdaq delisting notice and is now achieving compliance with the listing standards.
• Shares of Versus Systems Inc. VSgot a boost, surging 45% to $2.8792 after the company announced expansion into the Brazilian market as part of its strategy to grow its international footprint.
• Treasure Global Inc. TGL shares were also up, gaining 43% to $0.3058.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Scorpius Holdings, Inc.  SCPX shares dropped 26% to $0.2783 after the company announced its board approved a 1-for-20 reverse stock split.
• Shares of BioLineRx Ltd. BLRX were down 25% to $0.0915 after the company announced a dilutive change in the ratio of American depositary shares to ordinary shares. The proposed exchange ratio is equivalent to a 1-for-40 basis reverse stock split.
• AEON Biopharma, Inc. AEON was down, falling 17% to $0.1419.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $78.59 while gold traded down 0.2% at $2,745.00.

Silver traded down 1.7% to $31.185 on Friday, while copper fell 1.3% to $4.3825.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 surged 0.8%, Germany's DAX 40 gained 1.2% and France's CAC 40 gained 1.2%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.7%, while London's FTSE 100 gained 1.5%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.31%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.18%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbing 0.31% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.55%.

Economics

• U.S. industrial production rose by 0.9% in December, topping market estimates of a 0.3% increase.
• Housing starts rose by 15.8% from the previous month to an annualized rate of 1.499 million units in December.
• Building permits declined by 0.7% to an annualized rate of 1.483 million in December.

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