US mid-day: Traders stay busy before holiday, Nasdaq rallies
By Joseph Toppe
16:09, 30 December 2021
After Wall Street ran mixed during yesterday’s session, the major US indices are moving up together on Thursday.
Halfway through the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is around 0.12% higher, the S&P 500 is up near 0.18%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose approximately 0.49% after finishing in the red yesterday.
During trading on Wednesday, the S&P went up 0.1% to a new high, the Dow jumped 90.42 points, while the Nasdaq dipped 0.1% just before the bell.
Winners and losers: Royal Caribbean updates
Cases of Covid-19 in the US have reached an all-time daily high. The latest data from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine shows more than 265,000 new cases each day, with the highly contagious Omicron variant the likely culprit for the uptick in patients.
As cases continue to spike around the world, shares of Carnival are up roughly 2.28%, while Norwegian Cruise Line is up near 2.16%.
Shares of Royal Caribbean are almost 1.5% in the green after the company issued a press release on Thursday detailing the pandemic’s impact on the cruise line and subsequent influence throughout the industry. According to the release, “Since cruising restarted in the US in June 2021, the Royal Caribbean Group has carried 1.1 million guests with 1,745 people testing positive – a positivity rate of 0.02%.”
In other travel stock, shares of American Airlines are near 1.44% higher, Delta Airlines is around 1.30% better, while Southwest Airlines is roughly 2.09% in the green and United Airlines is almost 1.60% in positive territory.
Vaccine makers Pfizer are approximately 0.78% better, Moderna is back in the red near 0.77% and Johnson & Johnson is higher by almost 0.50%.
In the auto sector, shares of General Motors are up around 2.31%, Ford is up around 0.90%, and Toyota is up near 0.60%.
Meanwhile, shares for Tesla are roughly 0.28% better after financial filings published Tuesday revealed CEO Elon Musk sold another 934,090 shares, representing approximately $1.02bn of the Tesla chief’s stake in the electric car builder.
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Oil: Crude turns higher
Oil futures are up with West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery surging 24 cents, or 0.4%, higher to reach $76.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while February Brent crude tacked on 20 cents, or 0.3%, at $79.41 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
In energy stock, shares of Exxon Mobil are down around 0.21% in the red, while Chevron has slipped approximately 0.36%.
Gold: Metals mixed mid-week
Gold futures are trading at $2.40, or 0.1%, to reach $1,803.40 an ounce, after declining 0.3% on Wednesday, while March silver was nearly unchanged at $22.87 an ounce, following a 1.1% dip yesterday.
Forex: euro holds position on US dollar
On Thursday, one US dollar equals $1.28 of the Canadian dollar, $0.88 of the euro, $0.91 of the Swiss Franc, and $0.74 of the Pound sterling.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note increased to 1.543% from 1.542% Wednesday.
Read more: Tesla's EV revolution: Where will the TSLA stock price be in five years?
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