U.S. stocks were on an upward trajectory as the trading day drew to a close, with the Dow Jones index surging over 100 points on Thursday.
The Dow soared 0.35% to 37,398.50 while the NASDAQ made substantial gains, rising by 1.16% to 15,027.63. The S&P 500 also saw an upward trend, gaining 0.67% to 4,770.73.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Information technology shares experienced a 2% surge on Thursday.
Meanwhile, health care shares saw a downturn, dipping by 1.1%.
Top Headline
M&T Bank Corporation MTB posted weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter on Thursday.
M&T Bank posted quarterly earnings of $2.81 per share, falling short of market estimates of $3.49 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $2.30 billion, slightly exceeding expectations of $2.28 billion.
Equities Trading UP
Agrify Corporation AGFY saw its shares surge by 18% to $1.3897 following the company’s announcement of a multi-million dollar sales agreement with Ocean Deep/Golden Lake Business Park.
Shares of M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. MDC also experienced a boost, surging by 18% to $62.83 after the company announced its acquisition by Sekisui House.
LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. RAMP shares were up as well, gaining 9% to $40.08 after the company entered into an agreement to acquire Habu for about $200 million and reported preliminary third-quarter revenue results above expectations. Additionally, Benchmark raised its price target on the stock from $44 to $51.
Equities Trading DOWN
Aravive, Inc. ARAV witnessed a 45% drop to $0.0606 as it intends to voluntarily terminate the listing of its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market
Shares of Processa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PCSA fell by 28% to $0.1989. Processa Pharmaceuticals revealed its plan to effect a 1-for-20 reverse stock split.
eHealth, Inc. EHTH saw a decline, falling by 19% to $5.70 after Craig-Hallum analyst George Sutton downgraded eHealth from Buy to Hold.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil experienced a 2.2% increase, trading at $74.17, while gold traded up 0.6% at $2,018.10. Silver also saw an increase of 0.6%, reaching $22.80, and copper rose by 0.4% to $3.7490.
Euro zone
European shares ended the day on a positive note. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose by 0.59%, London’s FTSE 100 rose by 0.17%, and Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose by 0.13%. The German DAX gained 0.83%, and the French CAC 40 rose by 1.13%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed by 0.84%.
In terms of economic indicators, construction output in the Eurozone reported a year-over-year fall of 2.2% in November, while the current account surplus rose to EUR 31.7 billion in November, compared to a revised EUR 6.6 billion in the year-ago period. Passenger car registrations in the European Union declined by 3.3% year-over-year to 867.1 thousand units in December.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets saw mixed results on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling by 0.03%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.75%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index rising by 0.43%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, on the other hand, fell by 0.44%.
Hong Kong’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.9% in the three months ending December. Industrial production in Japan fell by 0.9% from a month ago in November, while Japan’s core machinery orders declined by 4.9% month-over-month in November.
Economics
U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 16,000 to 187,000 in the week ending January 18, outperforming market estimates of 207,000.
The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index saw an increase of 2.2 points to a reading of -10.6 in January from -12.8 a month ago, surpassing market estimates of -7.
Housing starts experienced a 4.3% month-over-month decline to an annualized rate of 1.46 million in December, while building permits increased by 1.9% to an annual rate of 1.495 million in December.
The EIA reported a 2.492 million-barrel decline in crude-oil inventories in the U.S. for the week ending Jan. 12, 2024, which exceeded market estimates of a 0.313 million-barrel decline.
U.S. natural-gas supplies fell by 154 billion cubic feet during the week ended Jan. 12, 2024, according to the EIA.
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