U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining over 150 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.32% to 52,513.93 while the NASDAQ rose 0.84% to 26,088.28. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.60% to 7,527.54.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares jumped by 1.3% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, communication services stocks fell by 1.7%.

Top Headline

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) shares fell around 5% on Thursday after the company reported second-quarter results Thursday that topped revenue expectations but fell just short on adjusted earnings.

Net revenue rose 6.4% year over year to $24.18 billion, beating the $23.96 billion analyst estimate. Core EPS increased 4% to $2.20, missing the $2.21 estimate, while GAAP EPS rose 137% to $2.18.

Equities Trading UP
         

• Virax Biolabs Group Ltd (NASDAQ:VRAX) shares shot up 260% to $11.44 after the company announced its subsidiary, Virax Biolabs, entered into an exclusive multi-country commercial supply agreement with Fosun Diagnostics for ImmuneSelect research-use immune profiling product line.
• Shares of Forte Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:FBRX) got a boost, surging 42% to $29.17 after reporting results from FB102 double-blind placebo-controlled Phase 1b study in Vitiligo.
• Rocket One Inc (NASDAQ:RKTO) shares were also up, gaining 36% to $1.09 after the company announced it added SpaceXAI API to its AI technology stack.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Aimei Health Technology Co Ltd (NASDAQ:AFJK) shares dropped 47% to $14.20. Aimei Health Technology terminated the business combination agreement with United Hydrogen Group.
• Shares of Gloo Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:GLOO) were down 19% to $3.23. Gloo Holdings priced $22.75 million offering of 7 million Class A common shares at $3.25 per share.
• Rackspace Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:RXT) was down, falling 23% to $5.08 after the company cut its FY26 revenue guidance and filed prospectus for offering $250 million common shares.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.9% to $72.87 while gold traded up 1.3% at $4,135.80.

Silver traded up 3.6% to $60.670 on Thursday, while copper rose 2.6% to $6.2630.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.7%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1%. London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.5%, while France’s CAC 40 gained 0.7%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 1.38%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index falling 0.70%, China’s Shanghai Composite rising 1.65% and India’s BSE Sensex gaining 0.31%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 2,000 to 215,000 in the week to July 4, compared to market estimates of 218,000.

Photo via Shutterstock