U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite surging more than 400 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.44% to 42,100.00 while the NASDAQ rose 2.30% to 17,976.85. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.65% to 5,710.85.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares jumped by 2.7% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 from the prior week to 219,000 in the week ending September 14, compared to market expectations of 230,000.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $71.71 while gold traded up 0.2% at $2,602.70.

Silver traded up 2.2% to $31.355 on Thursday, while copper rose 1.7% to $4.3720.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 climbed 1.4%, Germany's DAX climbed 1.6% and France's CAC 40 jumped 2%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.7%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 1%.

The Bank of England maintained the Bank Rate at 5% during its September meeting, after cutting rates by 25 bps in August. The current account surplus in the Eurozone increased to €48 billion in July from €25.5 billion in the year-ago period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 2.13%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surging 2%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.69% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.29%.

Hong Kong's unemployment rate came in unchanged at 3% in the three months ending August. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority cut its base rate by 50bps to 5.25% at its recent meeting.

Economics

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