U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index surging more than 200 points on Wednesday.

the Dow traded up 0.48% to 48,673.55 while the NASDAQ rose 0.09% to 23,582.81. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.25% to 6,927.29.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares rose by 0.7% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services stocks fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 10,000 from the previous week to 214,000 in the week ending Dec. 20, compared to market estimates of 223,000.

Equities Trading UP
           

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $58.28 while gold traded down 0.3% at $4,493.50.

Silver traded down 0.2% to $71.00 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.2% to $5.5640.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.1%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.06%. London's FTSE 100 fell 0.19%, Germany's DAX 40 rose 0.23% and France's CAC 40 slipped 0.01% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.14%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gaining 0.17%, China's Shanghai Composite rising 0.53% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.14%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 10,000 from the previous week to 214,000 in the week ending Dec. 20, compared to market estimates of 223,000.

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