U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining around 150 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.36% to 42,141.02 while the NASDAQ rose 0.90% to 17,607.06. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.56% to 5,664.60.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares rose by 0.1% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares tumbled by 0.4%.

Top Headline

Private businesses in the U.S. added 155,000 jobs in March compared to a revised 84,000 gain in February and higher than market estimates of 105,000.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $71.21 while gold traded up 0.9% at $3,175.50.

Silver traded up 0.8% to $34.57 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.2% to $5.0435.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.99%, Germany's DAX 40 dipped 1.33% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.77%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.11%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.68%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 0.28%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.05%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.02% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.78%.

Economics

• U.S. mortgage applications fell by 1.6% in the week ending March 28.
• Private businesses in the U.S. added 155,000 jobs in March compared to a revised 84,000 gain in February and higher than market estimates of 105,000.
• New orders for US manufactured goods rose by 0.6% month-over-month for February compared to a revised 1.8% gain in January.

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