• The Nasdaq rose 1% on Friday to close the session at 15,861 points.
• Lordstown Motors tumbled 17.56% following Q3 results & delayed delivery.
• Johnson & Johnson rose 1.2% on plans to split into two listed companies.

The US markets closed higher on Friday but lower across the key indices for the week as continuing investor fears over inflation hit investor optimism following inflation data hitting a 30-year high for October.

The Dow Jones rose 0.51% to finish the trading day up 179 points to close at 36,100 points.

The tech heavy NASDAQ rose 1% to finish the trading day up 157 points to close at 15,861 points with Facebook and Google gaining 4.01% and 1.97% respectively.

One bitcoin is worth US$64,517 going into the Asian trading day.

The Australian dollar is stronger against the major currencies and is buying 73.28 US cents.

Shares in Lordstown Motors tumbled 17.56% on Friday after the EV maker reported third-quarter results. For the period, Lordstown reported a US$95.8m loss which is a loss per share of US$0.54/share, just better than the estimated US$0.59/share. The pre-revenue company also said it plans to produce and deliver its Endurance truck in Q3 of FY2022, a full year behind the original plan provided to investors when the company went public in 2020.

Johnson & Johnson rose 1.2% on Friday after the medical and consumer product company announced it will split into two separately listed companies over the next 18-24 months. J&J is splitting its medical device and pharmaceutical business from its consumer products business after a comprehensive review led management and the board to the separation decision.

And Disney has partnered with TikTok to add official character voices to the popular social media apps’ text-to-speech feature including Chewbacca, Stitch from Lilo and Stitch, and even C-3PO.