U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 600 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.69% to 51,951.16 while the NASDAQ surged 2.54% to 25,063.22. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.29% to 7,410.80.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares jumped by 5% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, communication services stocks fell by 3.3%.

Top Headline

Shares of Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) jumped around 15% on Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.

Microsoft reported fourth-quarter revenue of $90.01 billion, up 18% year-over-year. The revenue total beat a Street consensus estimate of $87.62 billion. The company reported quarterly earnings per share of $4.74, beating a Street consensus estimate of $4.24.

Equities Trading UP
         

• Nuwellis (NASDAQ:NUWE) shares shot up 200% to $5.68 as the company announced acceptance of new single-center retrospective study in Frontiers in Pediatrics Journal.
• Shares of PN Smart Energy Ltd (NASDAQ:PN) got a boost, surging 51% to $16.16. PN Smart Energy completed the acquisition of Nanjing Cesun Power.
• Xerox Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:XRX) shares were also up, gaining 33% to $3.51 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly financial results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Capricor Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CAPR) shares dropped 53% to $3.09 after the FDA Advisory Committee voted against its Deramiocel, an investigational cell therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
• Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:INO) were down 43% to $0.59 after the biotechnology company priced a $20 million underwritten public offering of common stock and accompanying warrants.
• Coastal Financial Corp (NASDAQ:CCB) was down, falling 40% to $42.50 after the company reported second-quarter results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $83.57 while gold traded up 2.6% at $4,139.40.

Silver traded up 0.6% to $58.410 on Thursday, while copper rose 2.1% to $6.4435.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.7%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 1.5% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.3%, while France’s CAC 40 surged 1.1%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.71%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rising 0.20%, China’s Shanghai Composite falling 0.62% and India’s BSE Sensex gaining 0.35%.

Economics

• U.S. personal income increased 0.2% month-over-month in June, down from market estimates of a 0.3% increase and easing from a 0.7% gain in May.
• U.S. personal spending rose by 0.3% month-over-month in June, slowing from a revised 0.9% gain in May.
• U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 9,000 to 197,000 in the week ending July 25, compared to market expectations of 200,000.
• The U.S. PCE price index fell 0.1% month-over-month in June, following a 0.5% rise in May.
• The U.S. economy grew by an annualized 1.5% in the second quarter, down from 2.1% in the first quarter and missing market estimates of 2.1%.

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