U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the S&P 500 gaining around 1% on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.30% to 51,641.89 while the NASDAQ rose 1.42% to 26,392.39. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.01% to 7,495.26.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares jumped by 2.3% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, energy stocks fell by 2.1%.

Top Headline

Accenture reported third-quarter earnings of $3.80 per share, exceeding analysts' estimates of $3.69. Revenue rose 6% year over year in U.S. dollars, or 3% in local currency, to $18.72 billion, slightly below the consensus estimate of $18.75 billion.

Equities Trading UP
           

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2% to $75.31 while gold traded down 2.6% at $4,269.20.

Silver traded down 6% to $66.505 on Thursday, while copper fell 1.4% to $6.4050.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 declined 0.3%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.1%. London's FTSE 100 fell 1%, Germany's DAX gained 0.4%, while France's CAC 40 rose 0.5%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly mixed on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 1.65%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 1.59%, China's Shanghai Composite falling 0.43% and India's BSE Sensex climbing 0.33%.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 4,000 to 226,000 in the second week of June, compared to market estimates of 225,000.
• The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index rose to 10.3 in June from -0.4 in the previous month, compared to market estimates of 10.
• U.S. natural-gas stocks rose by 73 billion cubic feet in the week ended June 12, compared to market estimates of a 75 bcf build.

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