U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 300 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.80% to 42,882.77 while the NASDAQ rose 0.84% to 19,472.63. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.75% to 5,926.73.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 1.5% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, real estate shares fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 9,000 from the previous week to a reading of 211,000 in the final week of 2024, and versus market estimates of 222,000.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.4% to $73.42 while gold traded up 0.7% at $2,658.80.

Silver traded up 1.8% to $29.755 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.3% to $4.0130.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, Germany's DAX 40 gained 0.3% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.2%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.2%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.9%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with China's Shanghai Composite Index falling 2.66%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dipping 2.18% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 1.83%.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 9,000 from the previous week to a reading of 211,000 in the final week of 2024, and versus market estimates of 222,000.
• The S&P Global manufacturing PMI declined to 49.4 in December compared to 49.7 in the prior month, and versus a revised preliminary reading of 48.3.

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