U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index falling around 0.1% on Friday.

The Dow traded down 0.09% to 49,398.52 while the NASDAQ gained 0.13% to 23,559.46. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.09% to 6,950.87.

Leading and Lagging SectorsInformation technology shares gained by 0.3% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, materials stocks dipped by 1%.

Top Headline

U.S. industrial production increased 0.4% month-over-month in December, the same as in the previous month and higher than market estimates of 0.1%.

Equities Trading UP           

• Venus Concept Inc (NASDAQ:VERO) shares shot up 376% to $6.80. Madryn Asset Management reported a stake of 91% in Venus Concept in an amended 13D filing on Thursday.
• Shares of Jeffs Brands Ltd (NASDAQ:JFBR) got a boost, surging 196% to $1.65 after the company announced its subsidiary, KeepZone AI, entered into a non-exclusive distribution agreement with STI.
• Locafy Ltd (NASDAQ:LCFY) shares were also up, gaining 73% to $5.44 after the company announced it expanded its partnership with Experience.com.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Sasol Ltd (NYSE:SSL) shares dropped 12% to $6.30 after JP Morgan downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underweight.
• Shares of Sigma Lithium Corp (NASDAQ:SGML) were down 10% to $12.87. Reports yesterday suggested that Brazil shut down the company’s waste piles due to safety concerns.
• Erayak Power Solution Group Inc (NASDAQ:RAYA) was down, falling 24% to $3.00. Shares of electrical equipment companies traded lower amid overall market weakness.

CommoditiesIn commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $59.78 while gold traded down 0.2% at $4,613.60.

Silver traded down 3.4% to $89.170 on Friday, while copper fell 2.7% to $5.8310.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.21%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.14%. London's FTSE 100 slipped 0.13%, Germany's DAX fell 0.36% and France's CAC 40 slipped 0.91% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei falling 0.32%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declining 0.29%, China's Shanghai Composite falling 0.26% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.23%.

Economics

• The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's general business activity index climbed to -16.1 in January from -20.0 in the prior month.
• U.S. industrial production increased 0.4% month-over-month in December, the same as in the previous month and higher than market estimates of 0.1%.