U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining around 200 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.44% to 45,471.56while the NASDAQ rose 0.26% to 21,553.68. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.39% to 6,473.10.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 1.6% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, utilities stocks fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 8,000 from the previous week to 237,000 in the final week of August, compared to market expectations of 230,000.

Equities Trading UP

Zeta Network Group ( ZNB ) shares shot up 67% to $2.2899 after the company announced it entered into a definitive merger agreement with Aero Velocity.

Shares of BrilliA Inc ( BRIA ) got a boost, surging 56% to $3.9990. The intimate apparel solutions provider declared a cash dividend of $0.133 per Class A share, totaling $2,992,500 across 22.5 million outstanding shares. The dividend carries a record date of September 15, with payment scheduled for September 30.

SMX (Security Matters) ( SMX ) Public Limited Company shares were also up, gaining 67% to $2.04.

Equities Trading DOWN

Neonode Inc. ( NEON ) shares dropped 71% to $6.32 following an announcement of anticipated proceeds from a patent lawsuit settlement.

Shares of Artelo Biosciences, Inc. ( ARTL ) were down 51% to $4.31 after the company announced a proposed underwritten public offering of common stock and/or pre-funded warrants.

707 Cayman Holdings Limited ( JEM ) was down, falling 47% to $0.4095 after dipping 66% on Wednesday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.8% to $63.48 while gold traded down 0.6% at $3,613.90.

Silver traded down 1.4% to $41.465 on Thursday, while copper fell 1.5% to $4.5630.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.6%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.9%. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.4%, Germany's DAX 40 gained 0.7% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.3% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 1.53%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 1.12%, China's Shanghai Composite declining 1.25% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.19%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 8,000 from the previous week to 237,000 in the final week of August, compared to market expectations of 230,000.

U.S. crude oil inventories gained by 2.415 million barrels to 420.7mllion barrels in the final week of August, versus market expectations of 1.8 million barrels.

The ISM services PMI climbed to 52 in August from 50.1 in July, compared to market estimates of 51.

The S&P Global US composite PMI was revised lower to 54.6 in August versus a preliminary reading of 55.4.

Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased 3.3% in the second quarter.

The US trade gap rose to $78.3 billion in July from a revised $59.1 billion gap in the previous month.

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