S&P 500 Gains 1%; Fastenal Posts Downbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the S&P 500 gaining around 1% on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.86% to 43,524.83 while the NASDAQ rose 1.46% to 19,620.72. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1% to 5,996.98.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares surged by 1.8% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, health care shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

Fastenal Company FAST reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.

Fastenal reported sales growth of 3.7% year-over-year to $1.825 billion, missing the consensus of $1.844 billion. The company's fourth-quarter EPS was 46 cents, missing the estimate of 48 cents.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Nukkleus Inc. NUKK shares shot up 62% to $33.26 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 49% to $2.86 after the company announced expansion into the Brazilian market as part of its strategy to grow its international footprint.
• Qorvo Inc QRVO shares were also up, gaining 13% to $83.31 following a WSJ report indicating activist investor Starboard Value has acquired a 7.7% stake in the company.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Scorpius Holdings, Inc.  SCPX shares dropped 27% to $0.27 after the company announced its board approved a 1-for-20 reverse stock split.
• Shares of BioLineRx Ltd. BLRX were down 21% to $0.096 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.
• J B Hunt Transport Services Inc JBHT was down, falling 7% to $173.60 after the company reported fourth-quarter EPS below estimates.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.5% to $78.28 while gold traded down 0.1% at $2,748.00.

Silver traded down 1.8% to $31.160 on Friday, while copper fell 1.4% to $4.3780.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 surged 0.74%, Germany's DAX 40 gained 1.15% and France's CAC 40 gained 1.06%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.50%, while London's FTSE 100 gained 1.58%.

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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