Data showed today that the US manufacturing sector growth slowed in January unlike the services sector that grew better than expected.

The US manufacturing PMI slowed to 58.5 points in January, from 59.2 points in December, beating forecasts of a drop to 58.4.

The US services PMI rose to 58.9 points from 58.3 in December, beating forecasts of 57.9 points.

US stock indices opened higher on Friday, after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's comments over President Joe Biden's stimulus plan.

Yellen said during her interview with CNBC yesterday that the US economy could return to growth and full employment in 2022 if President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package is passed Congress.

Yellen also said earlier this month that if Congress failed to pass the stimulus plan the reopening of the economy would be delayed to the end of 2021, which weighs down on the job market, production and economic activity.

As for stocks, Dow Jones rose 0.3% or 95 points to 31,590 as of 15:18 GMT, Nasdaq rose 0.4% or 57 points to 13,922, and S&P 500 rose 0.2% or 8 points to 3,922.

Nickel prices surged on Friday, as the US dollar fell, and strong demand from electric vehicles makers.

Major EV manufacturers led by Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk praised nickel for its capabilities in electric batteries.

Analysts see that nickel is heading toward a surge in global demand in the next few years as many car companies are turning to manufacturing electric vehicles.

This comes thanks to many countries efforts to fight the climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions and the adoption of environmentally friendly policies.

The dollar index fell against a basket of major currencies by 0.3% to 90.3 points as of 14:28 GMT, after hitting a high of 90.6 points and a low of 90.1 points.

Nickel spot futures rose 4.5% to trade at $19541.1 per tonne as of 14:39 GMT.

Oil prices fell on Friday, due to profit-taking from a 13-month high, and fears over a rise in the US crude inventories after the cold weather conditions in country suspended demand from refineries.

US crude fell 2.5% to $58.60, after opening at $60.09, and hit a day high at $60.16, and Brent crude fell 2.3% to $62.12, after opening at $63.60, and hit a day high at $63.60.

US crude lost 2.3% yesterday, on profit-taking from a 13-month high $62.25 a barrel.

While Brent crude futures fell 2.0%, after hitting the highest since January 2020 at $65.49 a barrel.

Energy experts are concerned about a possible build-up in the US crude stocks during the next few weeks due to weak demand from refineries, especially in Texas, due to the cold weather conidiations.

Despite the suspension of about 3.5 million barrels per day of the US oil production, the lack of demand will likely lead to a build-up in stockpiles during the next few weeks, and may lead to another storage problem like the one that was the reason for the prices collapse in April 2020.

The US Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that crude inventories fell 7.3 million barrels during the week ending February 12, beating forecasts of a drop by 2.1 million barrels.

The total commercial inventories fell to 461.8 million barrels, the lowest level since the week ending March 20, 2020, in a positive sign of the US domestic demand.

The US production fell 200K bpd last week, to the lowest level since the week ending October at a total of 10.8 million barrels per day.