Friday’s Stock Market Open: US Equities Climb Modestly Following Thursday’s Drop

U.S. stocks rose on Friday as traders seek to bounce back from Thursday’s losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 26.06 points to 26,760.77, while the S&P 500 rose 8.25 points to 3,223.82 and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 28.41 points to 10,502.24.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised doubts that European leaders will be able to agree upon a 750 billion-euro ($854 billion) funding package to fight COVID-19 at a summit in Brussels.

Housing starts jumped by 17.3% in June following May's 8.2% increase, said the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Building permits rose by 2.1% in June after climbing by 14.1% in May.

"Privately-owned housing completions in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,225,000. This is 4.3% above the revised May estimate of 1,174,000 and is 5.1% above the June 2019 rate of 1,166,000," the agencies said.

On Thursday, more than 77,000 people in the U.S. were confirmed as infected with COVID-19, a new record. Texas, Florida and California were the hardest hit states. Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that cases could soon exceed 100,000 a day

The U.S. has now confirmed more than 3.5 million coronavirus cases, while more than 138,000 Americans have died.

California, Florida and Texas, facing a spike in cases, have been forced to scale back reopening of businesses.

Gregory Faranello, head of U.S. rates trading at AmeriVet Securities, said: “We’re rolling into this period of coronavirus cases increasing and we’ve had some shutdowns. So, there’s definitely a sense of nervousness in the market.”

Traders will continue to pore over corporate earnings.

“The companies that have reported their second quarter so far beat expectations by about 80%,” said Mark Matthews, head of Asia research at Bank Julius Baer & Co. in Singapore. “We all knew the second quarter would be terrible, but it’s turning out to be a little less terrible.”

Overnight in Asia markets finished mixed, as China’s Shanghai Composite index edged up 0.13%; Japan’s Nikkei-225 slipped 0.32%; and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng exchange gained 0.47%.

In Europe markets traded mixed, as Britain’s FTSE-100 rose 0.48%, while France’s CAC-40 dropped 0.32% and Germany’s DAX climbed 0.31%.

Crude oil futures edged up 0.2% at $40.83 per barrel, Brent crude edged down 0.05% at $43.35. Gold futures rose 0.53%.