Dow Surges Over 250 Points; Accenture Earnings Top Views

U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones index rising more than 250 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.63% to 42,177.28 while the NASDAQ rose 0.54% to 18,179.88. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.36% to 5,743.03.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares jumped by 1.9% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 2%.

Top Headline

Accenture Plc ACN reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

The company posted quarterly sales of $16.41 billion compared with the analyst consensus estimate of $16.39 billion, up 3% Y/Y in U.S. dollars and 5% in local currency. The adjusted EPS of $2.79 topped the analyst consensus estimate of $2.77.

Accenture declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.48 per share, implying a growth of 15%. The board approved $4.0 billion in additional share repurchase authority, bringing Accenture's total outstanding authority to approximately $6.7 billion.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• Telesis Bio, Inc. TBIO shares shot up 43% to $3.31 after the company announced a partnership with Beckman Coulter Life Sciences to revolutionize DNA and mRNA synthesis.
• Shares of Pasithea Therapeutics Corp. KTTA got a boost, surging 62% to $6.24 after the company announced safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetic and preliminary efficacy data from the first 2 cohorts of patients in its Phase 1 clinical trial of PAS-004.
• Jabil Inc. JBL shares were also up, gaining 11% to $125.56 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results and approved a $1 billion share buyback.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Concentrix Corporation CNXC shares dropped 16% to $53.29 following mixed third-quarter financial results.
• Shares of Ryde Group Ltd. RYDE were down 32% to $0.7792 after the company announced a $4.5 million public offering at $0.85 per unit.
• MDxHealth SA MDXH was down, falling 21% to $2.00 after the company announced the pricing of a $40 million offering of 20 million shares at $2.00 per share

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.5% to $67.95 while gold traded up 0.2% at $2,690.70.

Silver traded up 0.9% to $32.315 on Thursday, while copper rose 3.1% to $4.6290.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 1.25%, Germany's DAX climbed 1.69% and France's CAC 40 jumped 2.33%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 1.36%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.20%.

Bank lending to households in the Eurozone increased by 0.6% year-over-year to €6.891 trillion in August compared to a 0.5% rise in the prior month. The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator for Germany climbed to a reading of -21.2 heading into October versus a revised reading of -21.9 in the prior period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 jumping 2.79%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumping 4.16%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 3.61% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.78%.

Hong Kong’s trade deficit widened to $33.1 billion in August versus $25.6 billion in the year-ago month.

Economics

• U.S. core PCE prices increased by 2.8% from the prior quarter during the second quarter compared to a 3.7% gain in the previous period.
• U.S. durable goods orders came in mostly unchanged from the previous month in August versus the revised 9.8% jump in the earlier period.
• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 4,000 from the prior week to 218,000 during the period ending September 21, compared to estimates of 225,000.
• The US economy expanded at an annualized rate of 3% during the second quarter versus a revised 1.6% increase in the first quarter.
• Pending home sales in the U.S. rose by 0.6% from the prior month in August versus market estimates of a 0.3% increase.
• U.S. natural-gas stocks rose 47 billion cubic feet in the week ended Sept. 20, compared to market estimates of a 52 bcf gain.

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