Mid-day market update: Crude oil rises over 1%; Document Decurity Dystems shares slide

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.23% to 31,128.24 while the NASDAQ rose 0.39% to 13,832.16. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.35% to 3,885.30.

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

Materials shares rose 1.6% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Marrone Bio Innovations Inc MBII 22.05%, up 10%, and LSB Industries, Inc. LXU 10.25%, up 14%.

In trading on Friday, information technology shares fell by 0.3%.

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 409.21% shares shot up 363% to $11.08.

Shares of LAIX Inc. LAIX 108.54% got a boost, shooting 170% to $6.90 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 39.2% shares were also up, gaining 57% to $6.23. Aurora Mobile partnered with short video social platform Kuaishou Technology, also known as TikTok competitor, to drive the latter’s monetization efficacy.

Equities Trading DOWN

ATA Creativity Global AACG 53.92% shares tumbled 54% to $6.58 on profit-taking after the stock rose 936% yesterday.

Shares of Document Security Systems, Inc. DSS 25.17% were down 27% to $3.16 after the company priced its $34.5 million upsized public offering of common stock.

Pro-Dex Inc PDEX 19.92% was down, falling 19% to $27.07 after the company reported a drop in quarterly earnings.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $56.82, while gold traded up 1.1% to $1,810.40.

Silver traded up 2.8% Friday to $26.955 while copper rose 1.1% to $3.5930.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 traded flat, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.13% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.03%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 gained 0.9%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.22% and Italy’s FTSE MIB surged 0.8%.

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.