U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.63% to 42,230.78 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.81% to 17,894.89. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.61% to 5,710.13.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 1.4% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims increased by 2,000 to 223,000 during the second week of March, compared to market estimates of 224,000.

Equities Trading UP

ProAssurance Corporation ( PRA ) shares shot up 48% to $22.99 after the company announced it will be acquired by The Doctors Company for $25.00 per share in cash.

Shares of Windtree Therapeutics, Inc. ( WINT ) got a boost, surging 71% to $2.8950 after the company entered a license and supply agreement to become a sourcing partner for Evofem Biosciences for Evofem’s PHEXXI.

OptiNose, Inc. ( OPTN ) shares were also up, gaining 55% to $9.28 after Paratek Pharmaceuticals announced it will acquire the company in a deal worth $330 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Elevation Oncology, Inc. ( ELEV ) shares dropped 41% to $0.2798 after the company announced the discontinued development of EO-3021.

Shares of Benson Hill, Inc. ( BHIL ) were down 42% to $0.3755 after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. ( AKBA ) was down, falling 30% to $1.9950 after the company announced the pricing of a $50 million offering of 25 million common shares at $2/share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.3% to $68.00 while gold traded up 0.1% at $3,044.60.

Silver traded down 0.6% to $34.015 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.1% to $5.0930.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.47%, Germany's DAX 40 fell 1.43% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.86%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.97%, while London's FTSE 100 slipped 0.15%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with China's Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.51%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dipped 2.23% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 1.19%.

Economics

U.S. existing home sales increased by 4.2% from the previous month to an annualized rate of 4.26 million homes in February.

The U.S. current account deficit shrank by 2.0% to $303.9 billion in the fourth quarter, versus a revised deficit of $310.3 billion in the third quarter.

U.S. initial jobless claims increased by 2,000 to 223,000 during the second week of March, compared to market estimates of 224,000.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index fell to 12.5 in March from 18.1 in the previous month, versus market estimates of 8.5.

U.S. natural gas stocks increased 9 billion cubic feet in the week ending March 14, compared to market estimates of a 3 billion cubic feet gain.

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