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

The Dow traded up 0.84% to 41,009.52 while the NASDAQ climbed 2.31% to 17,849.38. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.30% to 5,641.55.

Check This Out: Top 2 Real Estate Stocks That May Keep You Up At Night In May

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose by 3.3% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, health care stocks dipped by 2%.

Top Headline

McDonald’s Corp (NYSE:MCD) posted weaker-than-expected revenue for its first quarter.

The company reported first-quarter revenue decline of 3.4% year-on-year to $5.96 billion, missing the analyst consensus estimate of $6.09 billion. Adjusted EPS of $2.67 beat the consensus estimate of $2.66.

Equities Trading UP
                   

• CommScope Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COMM) shares shot up 22% to $4.5650 following better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
• Shares of Classover Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:KIDZ)got a boost, surging 239% to $3.87 after the company announced it entered into an equity purchase facility agreement with Solana Strategies Holdings.
• MediaAlpha, Inc. (NYSE:MAX) shares were also up, gaining 20% to $10.09 following strong quarterly sales.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Organon & Co. (NYSE:OGN) shares dropped 23% to $9.99 after the company reported first-quarter financial results and cut its quarterly dividend.
• Shares of Arvinas, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARVN) were down 28% to $6.92 after the company posted first-quarter results.
• Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) was down, falling 16% to $20.01 following first-quarter results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $58.61 while gold traded down 2.9% at $3,224.10.

Silver traded down 0.6% to $32.640 on Thursday, while copper rose 0.9% to $4.6480.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.03%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.06%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei gaining 1.13%.

Economics

• U.S. construction spending fell by 0.5% month-over-month to an annual rate of $2,196.1 billion in March.
• The ISM manufacturing PMI declined to 48.7 in April compared to 49.0 in March, above market estimates of 48.
• U.S. initial jobless claims increased by 18,000 to 241,000 in the week ending April 26, compared to market estimates of 224,000.

Now Read This:

• How To Earn $500 A Month From Apple Stock Ahead Of Q2 Earnings

Photo via Shutterstock