U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 350 points on Thursday.
The Dow traded up 0.77% to 48,278.43 while the NASDAQ rose 0.83% to 22,822.04. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.69% to 6,829.76.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Utilities shares climbed by 1.7% on Thursday.
In trading on Thursday, health care stocks fell by 0.6%.
Top Headline
Neogen Corp (NASDAQ:NEOG) shares fell around 3% on Thursday after the company reported results for the third quarter.
The company reported quarterly earnings of 9 cents per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 6 cents per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $211.200 million which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $204.492 million.
Equities Trading UP
- Onconetix Inc (NASDAQ:ONCO) shares shot up 108% to $2.35 after the company announced Realbotix, its pending acquisition target, has delivered its first Vinci-equipped humanoid robot to Ericsson.
- Shares of DarkIris Inc (NASDAQ:DKI) got a boost, surging 52% to $0.60 after the company announced it has established AETHER INTELLIGENCE, a new subsidiary in Singapore.
- STAAR Surgical Co (NASDAQ:STAA) shares were also up, gaining 26% to $26.22 after the company reported a year-over-year increase in first-quarter net sales results.
Equities Trading DOWN
- Huachen AI Parking Mgmt Tech Hldg Co Ltd (NASDAQ:HCAI) shares dropped 40% to $0.23 after the company announced a 1-for-30 reverse stock split.
- Shares of Simply Good Foods Co (NASDAQ:SMPL) were down 20% to $11.54 after the company reported mixed second-quarter financial results and cut its FY26 guidance below estimates.
- Spire Global Inc (NYSE:SPIR) was down, falling 13% to $17.75 after the company announced a $70 million private placement of its 5 million shares at $14 per share.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 3.2% to $97.42 while gold traded up 0.1% at $4,782.30.
Silver traded down 1% to $74.650 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.5% to $5.7480.
Euro zone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.5%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.6%. London's FTSE 100 slipped 0.3%, Germany's DAX dipped 1.6% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.8% during the session.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.73%, China's Shanghai Composite falling 0.72%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declining 0.54% and India's BSE Sensex dropping 1.20%.
Economics
- U.S. wholesale inventories increased by 0.8% month-over-month to $919.6 billion in February following a revised 0.3% decline in January.
- The U.S. PCE price index increased 0.4% month-over-month in February, up from January's 0.3% growth.
- U.S. initial jobless claims increased by 16,000 from the previous week to 219,000 in the week ending April 4, versus market estimates of 212,000.
- The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 0.5% in the fourth quarter. That's a sharp deceleration from the 4.4% pace recorded in the third quarter and a downward revision of 0.2 percentage points from the prior estimate, primarily due to weaker investment data.
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