U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.22% to 48,570.07 while the NASDAQ rose 0.48% to 24,130.19. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.33% to 7,046.04.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed by 1.8% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary stocks fell by 1%.

Top Headline

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) posted upbeat earnings for the first quarter on Thursday.

The company reported first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.61, outpacing the analyst consensus estimate of $1.55. Quarterly sales of $19.44 billion beat the Street view of $18.94 billion.

PepsiCo lowered its fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $8.46-$8.63 from $8.55-$8.71, compared with the $8.61 estimate. It also cut fiscal 2026 sales guidance to $95.803 billion-$97.682 billion from $97.682 billion-$99.561 billion, compared with the $98.373 billion estimate.

Equities Trading UP
           

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.4% to $93.51 while gold traded up 0.3% at $4,837.00.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $79.52 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.1% to $6.0845.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.3%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.2%. London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.6%, Germany’s DAX gained 0.5% and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.5% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 surging 2.38%, China’s Shanghai Composite climbing 0.70%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 1.72% and India’s BSE Sensex falling 0.16%.

Economics

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