U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining around 150 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.48% to 32,874.88 while the NASDAQ rose 0.68% to 12,007.85. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.62% to 4,052.93.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims increased by 7,000 from the prior week to 198,000 in the week ending March 25, compared to market expectations of 196,000.

Equities Trading UP

Equities Trading DOWN

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $73.60 while gold traded up 1% at $1,985.80.

Silver traded up 1.3% to $23.76 on Thursday while copper rose 0.3% to $4.0995.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.8%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 1.5%. The German DAX gained 1%, French CAC 40 rose 1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1%.

The annual consumer price inflation rate in Spain eased to 3.3% in March from 6% in the prior month, while retail sales growth in Spain eased to 4% year-over-year for February compared to around two-year high of 5.5% rise in the prior month. UK car production climbed 13.1% year-over-year to 69,707 units in February compared to a 0.3% decline in January.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 0.36%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 0.58% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.65%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.6%.

Economics

• US initial jobless claims increased by 7,000 from the prior week to 198,000 in the week ending March 25, compared to market expectations of 196,000.
• The US economy grew by an annualized 2.6% on quarter during the final three months of 2022, compared to initial estimates of a 2.7% growth.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 106,163,400 cases with around 1,154,350 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,709,670 cases and 530,840 deaths, while France reported over 39,782,580 COVID-19 cases with 165,600 deaths. In total, there were at least 683,644,470 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,829,250 deaths.