U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 200 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.03% to 43,743.75 while the NASDAQ rose 1.30% to 19,231.18. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.63% to 5,966.19.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares surged by 1.7% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, financials shares fell by 1.4%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 3,000 from the previous week to 221,000 in the final week of October, in-line with market expectations.

Equities Trading UP

AppLovin Corporation ( APP ) shares shot up 43% to $241.00 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly financial results.

Shares of Emergent BioSolutions Inc. ( EBS ) got a boost, surging 26% to $11.58 after the company announced it evaluated the safety and efficacy of its new clinical trial of Brincidofovir in treating Mpox across Africa. PANTHER will conduct a clinical trial under The Leadership of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dutch Bros Inc. ( BROS ) shares were also up, gaining 34% to $46.72 following third-quarter earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. ( XRAY ) shares dropped 26% to $17.65 after the company lowered its FY24 guidance and Leerink Partners downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform.

Shares of Digital Turbine, Inc. ( APPS ) were down 49% to $1.66 after the company reported worse-than-expected second-quarter financial results.

CommScope Holding Company, Inc. ( COMM ) was down, falling 23% to $5.32 after the company reported worse-than-expected third-quarter financial results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.3% to $72.63 while gold traded up 1.1% at $2,705.70.

Silver traded up 1.8% to $31.89 on Thursday, while copper rose 4.3% to $4.4270.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.62%, Germany's DAX gained 1.70% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.76%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.65%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.32%.

The Bank of England cut its Bank Rate by 25bps to 4.75% at its recent meeting. Retail sales in the Eurozone rose 0.5% month-over-month in September versus a revised 1.1% gain in August. The HCOB Eurozone construction PMI climbed to 43.0 in October from 42.1 in the previous month.

The S&P Global France construction PMI climbed to 42.2 in October from 37.9 in the prior month, while German construction PMI declined to 40.2 in October from 41.7 in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.25%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 2.02%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 2.57% and India's BSE Sensex falling 1.04%.

China’s trade surplus widened to $95.27 billion in October from $56.13 billion in the year-ago period. Foreign exchange reserves in Singapore increased to SGD 507.6 billion in October from SGD 499.7 billion in the prior month.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 3,000 from the previous week to 221,000 in the final week of October, in-line with market expectations.

U.S. nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased by 2.2% in the third quarter compared to a revised 2.1% gain in the prior three-month period.

Unit labor costs in the nonfarm business sector rose an annualized 1.9% during the third quarter compared to a revised 2.4% increase in the earlier period.

U.S. wholesale inventories fell by 0.2% month-over-month to $903.7 billion in September versus the preliminary reading of a 0.1% decline and compared to a 0.2% gain in the prior month.

U.S. natural-gas stocks rose by 69 billion cubic feet to 3.932 trillion cubic feet in the week ended Nov. 1.

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