Market Movement
U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining over 100 points on Thursday. After the market opening, the Dow traded up 0.33% to 37,932.33 while the NASDAQ rose 0.37% to 15,538.69. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining 0.40% to 4,887.88.
Sector Performance
Real estate shares rose by 1.2% on Thursday. In trading, consumer discretionary shares fell by 1.1%.
Economic Growth
The US economy grew an annualized 3.3% in the fourth quarter, topping market estimates of a 2% rise, compared to a 4.9% rate in the prior quarter.
Equities Trading
Onconetix, Inc. ONCO shares shot up 156% to $0.3798 after falling over 4% on Wednesday. Shares of Processa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PCSA surged 134% to $4.79 after announcing the completion of the safety tolerability evaluation in its Phase 1b trial of Next Generation Capecitabine. LAVA Therapeutics N.V. LVTX shares were also up, gaining 45% to $2.2445 after partnering with Merck to evaluate LAVA-1207 in combination with KEYTRUDA.
RedHill Biopharma Ltd. RDHL shares dropped 43% to $0.6154 after announcing an $8 million registered direct offering. Shares of Akoustis Technologies, Inc. AKTS were down 32% to $0.48 after announcing pricing of public offering of $10.0 million of common stock. Intelligent Bio Solutions Inc. INBS fell 23% to $0.2259 after announcing a reverse stock split.
Commodities Performance
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $76.25 while gold traded up 0.1% at $2,018.50. Silver traded up 0.6% to $23.015 on Thursday while copper rose 0.1% to $3.8890.
Global Economic Indicators
European shares were lower today, with the eurozone’s STOXX 600 falling 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 falling 0.1%, Spain’s IBEX 35 Index falling 1%, The German DAX falling 0.4%, French CAC 40 falling 0.3%, and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index falling 0.8%. The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany declined to 85.2 in January versus a revised reading of 86.3 in the prior month. Producer prices in Spain fell by 6.3% year-over-year in December, while the manufacturing climate indicator in France came in unchanged at 99 for January.
Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.03%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 1.96%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 3.03%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, fell 0.51%. Imports to Hong Kong jumped by 11.6% year-over-year to $446.3 billion in December, while exports from Hong Kong rose 11% year-over-year to $386.4 billion.
US Economic Indicators
The US initial jobless claims increased by 25,000 to 214,000 in the week ending Jan. 20. The US trade deficit in goods narrowed to $88.5 billion in December versus a revised $89.3 billion in the prior month. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index declined to -0.15 in December versus a revised 0.01 in the previous month. Wholesale inventories in the U.S. increased by 0.4% month-over-month in December. New orders for manufactured durable goods in the U.S. came in unchanged for December.
