U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 200 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.54% to 44,725.87 while the NASDAQ gained 0.61% to 20,518.19. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.51% to 6,259.36.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares jumped by 0.9% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples stocks slipped by 0.01%.

Top Headline

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 147,000 in June, the strongest reading so far in 2025, up from an upwardly revised 144,000 in May and well above economists' expectations of 110,000.

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.1% from 4.2%, also beating forecasts for a rise to 4.3%. It marks the lowest unemployment rate since January 2025.

Equities Trading UP

Global Interactive Technologies, Inc. ( GITS ) shares shot up 142% to $3.92.

Shares of La Rosa Holdings Corp.  got a boost, surging 107% to $0.1658 after the company reported preliminary unaudited revenue of $38.4 million for the first half of 2025.

Lixte Biotechnology Holdings, Inc. ( LIXT ) shares were also up, gaining 98% to $4.01. Lixte Biotechnology ( LIXT ) announced the closing of $5.0 million private placement priced at the market.

Equities Trading DOWN

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ( INO ) shares dropped 38% to $1.3350 after the company announced a $25 million public offering.

Shares of Netcapital Inc. ( NCPL ) were down 31% to $5.82 after the company announced up to a $9.9 million registered direct offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules.

Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings, Inc. ( SONN ) was down, falling 24% to $3.1680.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.5% to $67.10 while gold traded down 0.4% at $3,345.10.

Silver traded up 0.8% to $37.025 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.5% to $5.1695.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.4%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.5%. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.5%, Germany's DAX 40 gained 0.4% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.3% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei gaining 0.06%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 0.63%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.18% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.20%.

Economics

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 147,000 in June, the strongest reading so far in 2025, up from an upwardly revised 144,000 in May and well above economists' expectations of 110,000.

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.1% from 4.2%, also beating forecasts for a rise to 4.3%. It marks the lowest unemployment rate since January 2025.

Average hourly earnings rose just 0.2% on the month, down from 0.4% in May and below the 0.3% expected. Year-over-year wage growth eased from 3.8% to 3.7%, undershooting the 3.9% forecast.

The S&P Global composite PMI fell to 52.9 in June compared to 53.0 in May.

The U.S. trade gap increased to $71.5 billion in May versus a revised $60.3 billion gap in the previous month.

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 4,000 from the previous week to 233,000 in the week ended June 28, compared to market expectations of 240,000.

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