Benzinga - by Avi Kapoor, Benzinga Staff Writer.
U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index surging over 100 points on Thursday.
The Dow traded up 0.32% to 38,024.10 while the NASDAQ rose 0.74% to 15,720.29. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.31% to 5,033.86. .
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Leading and Lagging Sectors
Information technology shares rose by 1% on Thursday.
In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell by 1%.
Top Headline
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) reported downbeat earnings for its first quarter.
ConocoPhillips posted adjusted earnings of $2.03 per share, missing market estimates of $2.04 per share. The company's quarterly sales came in at $14.476 billion versus expectations of $15.047 billion.
Equities Trading UP
- Aspen Aerogels, Inc.. (NYSE:ASPN) shares shot up 46% to $22.19 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.
- Shares of Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) got a boost, surging 129% to $4.4199 after the company announced operational changes to stabilize its financial position and reported first-quarter financial results.
- Carvana Co. (NYSE:CVNA) shares were also up, gaining 39% to $121.17 after the company reported upbeat sales for the first quarter.
- Fastly, Inc. (NYSE:FSLY) shares dropped 34% to $8.55 after the company reported first-quarter financial results.
- Shares of Vestis Corporation (NYSE:VSTS) were down 50% to $9.22 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter results and lowered its fiscal 2024 outlook.
- XPEL, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) was down, falling 33% to $35.88 after the company reported worse-than-expected first-quarter financial results and slashed its annual revenue growth projection.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $78.81 while gold traded down 0.1% at $2,310.90.
Silver traded up 0.9% to $26.99 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.9% to $4.5055.
Euro zone
European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.19%, Germany's DAX fell 0.21% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.75%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index gained 0.03%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.60%.
The HCOB Eurozone manufacturing PMI edged higher to 45.7 in April versus the preliminary reading of 45.6. Germany's manufacturing PMI climbed to 42.5 in April from 41.9 in the prior month, while French manufacturing PMI declined to 45.3 in April versus 46.2 in March.
Asia Pacific Markets
Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.10%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumping 2.5% and S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.17%.
Hong Kong's economy grew 2.7% year-over-year in the first quarter compared to a 4.3% increase in the prior period, while the Hong Kong Monetary Authority kept its base rate unchanged at 5.75%.
The HSBC India manufacturing PMI was revised lower to 58.8 in April compared to preliminary reading of 59.1. The consumer confidence index for Japan fell to 38.3 in April versus 39.5 a month ago.
Economics
- The trade deficit in the US narrowed slightly to $69.4 billion in March versus a revised $69.5 billion gap in February.
- Exports of goods and services fell by $5.3 billion to $257.6 billion in March, while imports into the US fell by 1.6% to $327 billion.
- U.S. initial jobless claims came in unchanged from the previous week at 208,000 during the week ending April 27, compared to market expectations of 212,000.
- Unit labor costs in the U.S. nonfarm business sector rose an annualized 4.7%, while nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased by 0.3% in the first quarter.
- U.S. factory orders increased by 1.6% from the prior month to $584.5 billion in March.
- U.S. natural-gas supplies increased 59 billion cubic feet during the week ended April 26.
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