U.S. stocks traded slightly higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining around 10 points on Friday.
Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.02% to 39,877.48 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01% to 16,699.04. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.03% to 5,298.61 .
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Materials shares rose by 0.5% on Friday.
In trading on Friday, utilities shares fell by 0.2%.
Top Headline
Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT) reported better-than-expected financial results for the second quarter on Thursday.
Applied Materials said second-quarter revenue was flat on a year-over-year basis. The chip equipment company reported total revenue of $6.646 billion which beat the consensus estimate of $6.537 billion, according to Benzinga Pro. Applied Materials reported adjusted earnings of $2.09 per share, beating analyst estimates of $1.99 per share.
Equities Trading UP
- Fangdd Network Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:DUO) shares shot up 312% to $1.69. FangDD filed 2023 annual report on Form 20-F.
- Shares of Akanda Corp. (NASDAQ:AKAN) got a boost, surging 164% to $0.3495 after jumping around 27% on Thursday.
- Crown ElectroKinetics Corp (NASDAQ:CRKN) shares were also up, gaining 131% to $0.5574. The stock has seen interest from retail investors on social media.
Equities Trading DOWN
- Heart Test Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSCS) shares dropped 34% to $7.48.
- Shares of AmpliTech Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMPG) were down 34% to $1.44.
- GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) was down, falling 23% to $21.11. The video game retailer released preliminary first-quarter results, anticipating revenue between $0.872 billion and $0.892 billion. This represents a significant decline from the prior year's quarter of $1.237 billion. Additionally, GameStop expects a loss of $27 million to $37 million, narrower than the $50.5 million loss reported a year ago.
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Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $79.30 while gold traded up 0.8% at $2,406.80.
Silver traded up 2.9% to $30.73 on Friday, while copper rose 3.4% to $5.0420.
Euro zone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 slipped 0.2%, Germany's DAX fell 0.2% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.4%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.2%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.2%.
Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone was confirmed at 2.4% in April, the same as in the previous month. The unemployment rate in France came in unchanged at 7.5% for the first quarter.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei falling 0.34%, China's Composite Index climbing 1.01%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.91% and India's S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.3%.
China’s retail sales climbed by 2.3% year-over-year, compared to a 3.1% surge in the previous period, while unemployment rate fell to 5.0% in April. China’s industrial production rose by 6.7% year-over-year in April, topping market expectations of 5.5%, while new home prices fell by 3.1% year-over-year in April.
Hong Kong's GDP increased by 2.7% year-over-year in the first quarter, easing from the 4.3% growth recorded in the prior period.
Economics
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.
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