U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining by more than 500 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 1.24% to 43,945.57 while the NASDAQ rose 0.09% to 18,982.36. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.62% to 5,953.83.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Energy shares rose by 1.6% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, communication services shares fell by 2.3%.

Top Headline

Shares of Baidu, Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) fell more than 5% on Thursday after the company reported results for its fiscal third quarter.

The company posted quarterly revenue of $4.78 billion, down 3% year-on-year, topping the analyst consensus estimate of $4.69 billion. Baidu's adjusted earnings per ADS of $2.37 beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.35.

Equities Trading UP

• Quantum Computing Inc. (NASDAQ:QUBT) shares shot up 29% to $4.75. Quantum Computing announced it received another purchase order for its photonic chip foundry.
• Shares of Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) got a boost, surging 32% to $170.79 after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter. Snowflake expects fourth-quarter product revenue in the range of $906 million to $911 million, up approximately 23% year-over-year. The company also raised its full-year product revenue guidance from $3.356 billion to $3.43 billion, representing 29% year-over-year growth.
• Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE:UTI) shares were also up, gaining 19% to $23.71 after the company posted upbeat quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Cool Company Ltd. (NYSE:CLCO) shares dropped 13% to $9.27 following third-quarter results.
• Shares of Pyxis Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:PYXS) were down 44% to $2.14 after the company announced PYX-201 clinical Phase 1 part 1 data.
• Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) was down, falling 34% to $10.46. Kura Oncology and Kyowa Kirin disclosed a global strategic collaboration to develop and commercialize Ziftomenib in Acute Leukemias.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.7% to $70.06 while gold traded up 0.8% at $2,673.60.

Silver traded down 0.3% to $30.920 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.9% to $4.1170.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.41%, Germany's DAX gained 0.74% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.21%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.19%, while London's FTSE 100 gained 0.79%.

Consumer confidence in the Eurozone fell by 1.2 points to a reading of -13.7 in November.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.85%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.53%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.07% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.54%.

Economics

• U.S. existing home sales gained by 3.5% from the previous month to an annualized rate of 3.96 million in October.
• The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index fell to -5.5 in November from 10.3 in the previous month, and compared to market estimates of 8.
• U.S. initial jobless claims declined by 6,000 from the previous week to 213,000 in the week ending Nov. 16.

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