Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.82% to 30,854.86 while the NASDAQ rose 0.94% to 13,395.54. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.61% to 3,811.16.
The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 25,598,350 cases with around 429,200 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,701,190 confirmed cases and 153,840 deaths, while Brazil reported over 8,996,870 COVID-19 cases with 220,160 deaths. In total, there were at least 100,957,110 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,177,040 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Health care shares climbed 2.4% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Sundial Growers Inc SNDL 17.71%, up 28%, and NantHealth, Inc. NH 14.25%, up 18%.
In trading on Thursday, energy shares rose by just 0.6%.
Top Headline
Mcdonald's Corp MCD 1.22% reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.
McDonald's reported quarterly earnings of $1.70 per share, missing analysts’ expectations of $1.78 per share. The company posted revenue of $5.31 billion, versus estimates of $5.37 billion. McDonald's comparable store sales dropped 1.3% year over year.
Equities Trading UP
JanOne Inc. JAN 94.28% shares shot up 31% to $12.46 amid continued momentum driven by retail investor interest in the stock.
Shares of Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. PSAC 19.77% got a boost, shooting 15% to $14.95. Luxury electric vehicle brand Faraday Future is going public with a SPAC merger announced Thursday. Faraday Future is going public with Property Solutions Acquisition in a deal that values the company at $3.4 billion.
Monopar Therapeutics Inc. MNPR 30.27% shares were also up, gaining 32% to $8.78 after Roth Capital initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and a price target of $49 per share.
Check out these big movers of the day
Equities Trading DOWN
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. AMC 51.26% shares tumbled 64% to $7.25. The stock has been increasingly volatile following interest from retail investors and Robinhood limited trading in the stock, telling users they can close their position but they cannot buy additional shares.
Shares of Express, Inc. EXPR 53.84% were down 59% to $3.89 after climbing 214% on Wednesday. The stock has been volatile following increased interest from retail investor groups.
Tian Ruixiang Holdings Ltd TIRX 31.18% was down, falling 49% to $13.00. Tian Ruixiang shares jumped over 537% on Wednesday after the company priced its IPO at $4 per share.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $52.65, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,855.30.
Silver traded up 5.1% Thursday to $26.67 while copper rose 0.9% to $3.5885.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.25%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.15% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.46%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 climbed 1.1%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.49% and Italy’s FTSE MIB climbed 1.12%.
Spain's unemployment rate declined to 16.13% in the fourth quarter from 16.26% in the prior period. Car production in UK tumbled 29.3% to 920,928 units in 2020.
Economics
The US economy expanded an annualized 4% in the fourth quarter, versus a record 33.4% expansion in the prior quarter.
The goods gap in the US shrank to $82.5 billion in December versus a revised $85.5 billion in the prior month.
US initial jobless claims dropped to 847,000 in the week ended January 23 versus a revised reading of 914,000 in the previous week.
Wholesale inventories rose 0.1% in December.
New home sales rose 1.6% to an annual rate of 842,000 in December.
The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3% for December.
US natural-gas supplies declined 128 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.
The Treasury will auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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