U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 550 points on Friday.
The Dow traded up 1.69% to 33,488.01 while the NASDAQ rose 1.52% to 10,461.92. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.67% to 3,871.65.
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Materials shares gained by 3% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ:CENX), up 9%, and Taseko Mines Limited (NYSE:TGB), up 10%.
In trading on Friday, health care shares rose by just 0.5%.
Top Headline
The US economy added 223,000 jobs in December, the least since December 2020, following a revised 256,000 increase in November, and above market estimates of 200,000.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in December. Average hourly earnings climbed 0.3% to $32.82 in December.
Equities Trading UP
Equities Trading DOWN
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.3% to $74.65 while gold traded up 1.5% at $1,868.10.
Silver traded down 2.3% to $23.95 on Friday while copper rose 1.4% to $3.8750.
Euro zone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 1.07%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.8% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.98%. The German DAX gained 1.05%, French CAC 40 climbed 1.27% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.29%.
Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone eased to 9.2% in December, the lowest in four months, while retail sales rose by 0.8% from a month ago in November.
The S&P Global/CIPS UK construction PMI fell to 48.8 in December from 50.4 in the prior month, while the Halifax house price index rose 2% year-over-year in December versus a 4.6% increase a month ago. Factory orders in Germany fell 5.3% month-over-month in November, while retail sales in the country rose 1.1% month-over-month in November.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropping 0.29%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index adding 0.08%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.59% during the session.
Foreign exchange reserves in Hong Kong rose to $424 billion in December, the highest since August. The au Jibun Bank Japan Services PMI rose to 51.1 in December compared to a final reading of 50.3 in November, while average cash earnings in the country rose by 0.5% year-over-year in November.
Economics
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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 103,048,880 cases with around 1,120,800 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,680,600 cases and 530,700 deaths, while France reported over 39,381,820 COVID-19 cases with 162,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 667,484,690 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,707,270 deaths.