Mid-day market update: Crude oil rises 1%, China Finance Online shares slide

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.04% to 35,392.40 while the NASDAQ rose 1.59% to 14,568.72. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.20% to 4,587.08.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 69,808,350 cases with around 880,970 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 38,218,770 cases and 487,710 deaths, while Brazil reported over 23,420,860 COVID-19 cases with 621,920 deaths. In total, there were at least 339,709,660 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,584,780 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares surged 1.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ipsidy Inc. AUID +6.07% (Get Free Alerts for AUID), up 10% and Opera Limited OPRA +11.91% (Get Free Alerts for OPRA) up 12%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.5%.

Top Headline

American Airlines Group Inc. AAL +0.43% reported a narrower-than-expected loss for its fourth quarter.

American Airlines posted quarterly loss of $1.42 per share, beating analysts’ estimates for a loss of $1.47 per share. The company’s quarterly revenue came in at $9.40 billion, versus expectations of $9.37 billion.

Equities Trading UP

DatChat, Inc. DATS +23.08% shares shot up 23% to $3.69 after the company signed a letter of intent to acquire Avila Security Corporation for $1 million in cash and the greater of 739,650 shares of restricted common stock or $2.5 million of restricted common stock.

Shares of Casper Sleep Inc. CSPR +12.83% got a boost, shooting 15% to $6.57 after the company announced stockholder approval of a merger agreement.

Luminar Technologies, Inc. LAZR +18.88% shares were also up, gaining 18% to $15.90 after the company announced a partnership with Mercedes-Benz to accelerate the development of future highly automated driving technologies for Mercedes passenger cars.

Equities Trading DOWN

China Finance Online Co. Limited JRJC -37.11% shares tumbled 40% to $3.87 after the company announced it has received a notice of delisting from Nasdaq.

Shares of TaskUs, Inc. TASK -18.71% were down 18% to $29.03. Spruce Point named the stock as new short call with '50% downside,' setting a $18 price target.

Star Equity Holdings, Inc. STRR -24.7% was down, falling 25% to $1.2401 after the company reported pricing of $14.25 million underwritten public offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $87.80, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,841.20.

Silver traded up 1.4% Thursday to $24.575 while copper rose 1.6% to $4.5435.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.42%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.23%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.35%. The German DAX gained 0.51%, French CAC 40 rose 0.26% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.59%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone rose to a record high of 5% in December from 4.9% in November, while Producer inflation in Germany accelerated to a fresh all-time high of 24.2% in December from 19.2% in November.

Spain's trade deficit widened to €4.2 billion in November from €0.6 billion in the year-ago month, construction output in Italy climbed 13.2% year-over-year in November from a revised 14.6% growth in the prior month. The manufacturing climate indicator in France surged to 112 in January from 110 in December.

Economics

US initial jobless claims increased by 55 thousand to 286 thousand in the week ending January 15th.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index rose to 23.2 in January versus a one-year low of 15.4 in December.

Existing home sales in the US dropped 4.6% to an annual rate of 6.18 million in December.

US natural-gas supplies dropped 206 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

US crude oil inventories surged 500,000 barrels last week, the EIA said.