U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining around 300 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.78% to 39,903.35 while the NASDAQ gained 1.14% to 16,573.81. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.92% to 5,316.66.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares surged by 1.2% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment dipped to 50.8 in April, recording the weakest level since June, compared to 57 in March.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $60.50 while gold traded up 2.5% at $3,257.80.

Silver traded up 4.3% to $32.08 on Friday, while copper rose 4.8% to $4.5460.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.10%, Germany's DAX 40 fell 0.92% and France's CAC 40 slipped 0.30%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.18%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.64%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 dipping 2.96%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.45%, Hong Kong's Gang Seng index rising 1.13% and India's BSE Sensex jumping 1.77%.

Economics

• U.S. producer prices fell 0.4% month-over-month in March compared to a 0.1% gain in the previous month.
• The University of Michigan consumer sentiment dipped to 50.8 in April, recording the weakest level since June, compared to 57 in March.

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