Dow Rises Over 1%; Cal-Maine Foods Shares Plummet

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite climbing around 250 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 1.13% to 33,245.62 while the NASDAQ rose 2.64% to 10,483.15. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.86% to 3,853.50.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 2.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cardlytics Inc (NASDAQ: CDLX), up 18%, and iQIYI, Inc. (NASDAQ: IQ), up 15%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.6%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims increased by 9,000 to 225,000 in the week ending December 24, compared to market expectations of 225,000.

Equities Trading UP

• Hoth Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOTH) shares shot up 122% to $9.77 after the FDA accepted the IND application for HT-001.
• Shares of Freight Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: FRGT) got a boost, shooting 18% to $0.2649 after the company announced it now supports cross-border logistics requirements for a global electric-electronic equipment company.
• Nuwellis, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUWE) shares were also up, gaining 29% to $11.83. Nuwellis announced an exclusive U.S. license and distribution agreement for SeaStar Medical Holding’s Selective Cytopheretic Device (SCD) for acute kidney injury (AKI) in children.

Equities Trading DOWN

• F-star Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSTX) shares tumbled 40% to $4.13 after the Committee on Foreign Investment issued an interim order preventing the closing of the pending merger with Invox Pharma.
• Shares of Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: CALM) were down 13% to $53.96. Cal-Maine Foods reported downbeat earnings for its second quarter, while sales topped expectations.
• Titan Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: TMDI) was down, falling 16% to $0.6202. Titan Medical announced receipt of Nasdaq listing determination regarding delisting.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.3% to $77.94 while gold traded up 0.5% at $1,825.50.

Silver traded up 1.6% to $24.215 on Thursday while copper fell 0.4% to $3.8285.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.68%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.21% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.72%. The German DAX gained 1.05%, French CAC 40 gained 0.97% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.2%.

Loans to households in the Eurozone increased 4.1% year-over-year in November. Retail sales in Spain fell 0.6% year-over-year in November.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 0.94%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.79%, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.44%.

India reported a record current account gap of $36.4 billion during the third quarter compared to a $9.7 billion gap in the year-ago period. Imports to Hong Kong fell by 20.3% to $387.1 billion in November, while exports dipped by 24.1% to $360 billion. Hong Kong’s trade deficit increased to $27.1 billion in November from $11.1 billion in the year-ago period.

Economics

US initial jobless claims increased by 9,000 to 225,000 in the week ending December 24, compared to market expectations of 225,000.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 102,407,740 cases with around 1,117,190 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,678,930 cases and 530,690 deaths, while France reported over 39,245,930 COVID-19 cases with 161,710 deaths. In total, there were at least 663,618,220 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,692,200 deaths.