U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the S&P 500 gaining around 1.6% on Friday.

The Dow traded up 2.01% to 49,891.59 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.84% to 22,954.50. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.60% to 6,907.01.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares gained by 2.5% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, communication services stocks fell by 2%.

Top Headline

Shares of AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE:AN) jumped more than 7% on Friday after the company posted results for the fourth quarter.

The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $5.08 (+2% year over year), beating the analyst consensus estimate of $4.85. Sales of $6.929 billion missed the consensus estimate of $7.200 billion.

Equities Trading UP
           

• SunOpta Inc (NASDAQ:STKL) shares shot up 32% to $6.39. Refresco announced plans to acquire SunOpta for $6.50 per share in cash.
• Shares of Roivant Sciences Ltd (NASDAQ:ROIV) got a boost, surging 17% to $24.74 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly sales results.
• Proto Labs Inc (NYSE:PRLB) shares were also up, gaining 16% to $61.17 following better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Carbon Revolution PLC (NASDAQ:CREV) shares dropped 59% to $0.45 after the company announced receipt of delisting determination letter from Nasdaq.
• Shares of Ernexa Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ERNA) were down 52% to $0.33 after the company reported pricing of $10.5 million public offering.
• Founder Group Ltd (NASDAQ:FGL) was down, falling 41% to $0.080 after the company reported a 100 for 1 share combination.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $63.60 while gold traded up 1.6% at $4,969.00.

Silver traded down 0.8% to $76.140 on Friday, while copper rose 0.7% to $5.8590.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.65%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 1.02%. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.42%, Germany's DAX gained 0.56% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.31% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei falling 0.88%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.14%, China's Shanghai Composite declining 0.64% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.60%.

Economics

• The U.S. Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index rose 2.4% month-over-month in January following a 0.1% growth in the previous month.
• The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index increased by 0.9 points to a reading of 57.3 in February, topping market estimates of 55.

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