U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining around 300 points on Monday.

The Dow traded up 0.69% to 45,478.26 while the NASDAQ rose 0.12% to 20,973.14. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.38% to 6,392.96.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed by 1.6% on Monday.

In trading on Monday, industrials stocks fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index declined to -0.2 in March from 0.2 in the previous month.

Equities Trading UP

Bullfrog AI Holdings, Inc. ( BFRG ) shares shot up 154% to $1.29 after the company announced a commercial agreement with a top five global pharmaceutical company to apply its proprietary bfLEAP platform to identify and prioritize novel drug targets in major depressive disorder.

Shares of PMGC Holdings Inc. ( ELAB ) got a boost, surging 92% to $3.21 after the company announced its subsidiary NorthStrive Bioscience signed a licensing agreement amendment with MOA Life to speed up the timing and key development milestones for EL-32 and EL-22 human clinical development program. Also, the company reported a year-over-year expansion of its asset base.

Compass Diversified Holdings ( CODI ) shares were also up, gaining 18% to $7.88 after the company announced it will sell the food service business of its majority-owned subsidiary, SternoCandleLamp Holdings, to Archer Foodservice Partners.

Equities Trading DOWN

Roma Green Finance Limited ( ROMA ) shares dropped 29% to $4.47 as the company announced a $100.0 million share repurchase program.

Shares of Fermi Inc ( FRMI ) were down 19% to $5.03 after the company reported worse-than-expected fourth-quarter EPS results.

Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. ( VRDN ) was down, falling 31% to $18.77 following the announcement of topline results from the REVEAL-1 Phase 3 clinical trial for elegrobart, for thyroid eye disease (TED).

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.3% to $101.94 while gold traded up 1.7% at $4,570.20.

Silver traded up 1.9% to $71.125 on Monday, while copper rose 0.2% to $5.5075.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.8%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.9%. London's FTSE 100 surged 1.5%, Germany's DAX gained 0.9% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.8% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Monday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 2.79%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declining 0.81%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.24% and India's BSE Sensex dipping 2.22%.

Economics

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index declined to -0.2 in March from 0.2 in the previous month.