Dow Surges Over 100 Points; World Acceptance Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones gaining over 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.35% to 33,863.38 while the NASDAQ rose 1.33% to 11,463.77. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.75% to 4,046.34.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares rose by 2.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Murphy Oil Corporation MUR, up 6%, and Gran Tierra Energy Inc. GTE, up 8%.
• In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

The U.S. economy grew by an estimated 2.9% from October to December, marking the second straight quarter of economic growth, a positive sign for broader markets. The number came in above economist expectations for a gain of 2.6%.

The US GDP grew by 2.1% in 2022, compared to a 5.9% expansion in 2021.

Equities Trading UP

• Qualtrics International Inc. XM shares shot up 32% to $14.78 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results and issued Q1 revenue guidance above estimates.
• Shares of World Acceptance Corporation WRLD got a boost, shooting 22% to $98.79 after the company reported Q3 earnings results.
• Tesla, Inc. TSLA shares were also up, gaining 10% to $158.05 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter. Vehicle production totaled 439,701 units in the fourth quarter, while deliveries amounted to 405,278 electric vehicles.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Panbela Therapeutics, Inc. PBLA shares tumbled 40% to $1.6179 after the company reported pricing of $15 million public offering at $2.75 per share.
• Shares of Aridis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ARDS were down 32% to $0.8390 after the company announced top-line results from its AR-301-002 Phase 3 study, in which the primary endpoint was not met with statistical significance.
• Village Farms International, Inc. VFF was down, falling 36% to $0.9622 after the company announced a roughly $25 million registered direct offering.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.3% to $81.21 while gold traded down 0.7% at $1,929.40.

Silver traded down 0.4% to $24.025 on Wednesday while copper rose 0.6% to $4.2690.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.42%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.21% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.87%. The German DAX gained 0.34% French CAC 40 rose 0.74% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.32%.

Labor productivity in the UK increased by 0.1% on quarter during the three months to September, while car production in the country declined 17.9% year-over-year in December.

Consumer confidence in Italy fell to 100.9 in January versus an 11-month high level of 102.5 in the prior month, while manufacturing confidence rose to 102.7 from 101.5. Spain's unemployment rate increased to 12.87% in the fourth quarter from 12.67% in the prior period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.12% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 2.37%.

Hong Kong trade deficit increased to $51.6 billion in December versus $32.8 billion in the year-ago period. Singapore’s manufacturing production dropped by 3.1% year-over-year in December.

Economics

• The US GDP grew by 2.1% in 2022, compared to a 5.9% expansion in 2021.
• The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to -0.49 in December from -0.51 in the prior month.
• The US trade deficit in goods increased to $90.3 billion in December versus a near two-year low level of $82.9 billion a month ago.
• Durable goods orders in the US climbed 5.6% month-over-month in December.
• US jobless claims dropped by 6,000 from the prior week to 186,000 in the week ending Jan. 21, 2023.
• Building permits in the US dropped 1.0% from a month ago to an annual rate of 1.337 million in December.
• Wholesale inventories rose 0.1% in December, totalling $934.1 billion.
• US new home sales climbed 2.3% month-over-month to an annualised rate of 616,000 in December.
• The Kansas City Fed’s Manufacturing Production index increased to -4 in January versus a revised reading of -6 in the prior month.
• US natural-gas supplies dropped 91 billion cubic feet last week, the EIA said.

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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 104,015,450 cases with around 1,130,960 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,682,330 cases and 530,730 deaths, while France reported over 39,498,180 COVID-19 cases with 164,000 deaths. In total, there were at least 674,133,160 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,752,550 deaths.