U.S. stocks traded mostly higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining by more than 250 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 0.59% to 44,128.84 while the NASDAQ rose 0.08% to 18,986.80. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.28% to 5,965.15.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Consumer staples shares rose by 1.5% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, communication services shares fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) reported better-than-expected third-quarter EPS results.

The company said it sees FY25 earnings of $6.10 to $6.17 per share

Equities Trading UP

• Elastic N.V. (NYSE:ESTC) shares shot up 16% to $109.17 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results and issued FY25 guidance above estimates.
• Shares of Matthews International Corporation (NASDAQ:MATW) got a boost, surging 19% to $30.26 following upbeat earnings.
• Replimune Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:REPL) shares were also up, gaining 45% to $16.00 after the company on Thursday announced it received breakthrough therapy designation status for RP1 and will submit an RP1 biologics license application to the FDA under an accelerated approval pathway.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Autonomix Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMIX) shares dropped 55% to $6.11 after the company announced the pricing of a $9 million underwritten public offering.
• Shares of Aptose Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:APTO) were down 43% to $0.1390 after the company announced the pricing of an $8 million public offering.
• Cemtrex, Inc. (NASDAQ:CETX) was down, falling 41% to $0.1164 after the company announced its board approved a 1-for-35 reverse stock split.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $71.16 while gold traded up 1.1% at $2,704.00.

Silver traded up 1.1% to $31.275 on Friday, while copper fell 0.8% to $4.0940.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 1.12%, Germany's DAX gained 0.77% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.46%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.16%, while London's FTSE 100 gained 1.35%.

The S&P Global UK composite PMI declined to 49.9 in November versus 51.8 in the previous month, while Eurozone composite PMI dipped to 48.1 in November from 50 in the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 0.68%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 1.89%, China's Shanghai Composite Index dipping 3.06% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 2.54%.

Economics

• The S&P Global US Services PMI climbed to 57 in November versus 55 in the previous month, while manufacturing PMI increased to 48.8 in November from 48.5 in the previous month.
• The University of Michigan consumer sentiment for the US fell to 71.8 in November versus a preliminary reading of 73.
• The year-ahead inflation expectations in the U.S fell to 2.6% in November from 2.7% in October.

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