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U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite surging more than 400 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 1.44% to 42,100.00 while the NASDAQ rose 2.30% to 17,976.85. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.65% to 5,710.85.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 from the prior week to 219,000 in the week ending September 14, compared to market expectations of 230,000.

Equities Trading UP

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $71.71 while gold traded up 0.2% at $2,602.70.

Silver traded up 2.2% to $31.355 on Thursday, while copper rose 1.7% to $4.3720.

Euro zone

The Bank of England maintained the Bank Rate at 5% during its September meeting, after cutting rates by 25 bps in August. The current account surplus in the Eurozone increased to €48 billion in July from €25.5 billion in the year-ago period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 2.13%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surging 2%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.69% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.29%.

Hong Kong's unemployment rate came in unchanged at 3% in the three months ending August. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority cut its base rate by 50bps to 5.25% at its recent meeting.

Economics

The U.S. reported a current account deficit of $266.8 billion in the second quarter versus a gap of $241 billion in the prior period and higher than market estimates of a $260 billion gap.

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 from the prior week to 219,000 in the week ending September 14, compared to market expectations of 230,000.

The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index climbed to 1.7 in September from -7 in the previous month and topping market estimates of -1.

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