U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 350 points on Monday.

The Dow traded up 1.35% to 42,551.10 while the NASDAQ climbed 2.08% to 18,119.66. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.66% to 5,761.78.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 3.2% on Monday.

In trading on Monday, health care shares gained by just 0.4%.

Top Headline

The S&P Global US Composite PMI climbed to 53.5 in March compared to February's reading of 51.6, signalling the strongest growth since December 2024.

Equities Trading UP
                       

• AnaptysBio, Inc. ANAB shares shot up 11% to $18.91 after the company announced a $75 million share buyback program.
• Shares of The AZEK Company Inc. AZEKgot a boost, surging 14% to $47.23 amid an announcement that James Hardie will acquire the company for $8.75 billion.
• Treasure Global Inc. TGL shares were also up, gaining 29% to $0.1422 after the company announced a strategic initiative to develop and deploy an advanced artificial intelligent cloud infrastructure in Malaysia.

Equities Trading DOWN

• WANG & LEE GROUP, Inc. WLGS shares dropped 86% to $0.7049 after the company announced the pricing of $12.0 million registered direct offering.
• Shares of 23andMe Holding Co. ME were down 50% to $0.8901 after the company announced it has initiated voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy to pursue a strategic sale and secured $35M in DIP financing.
• Unity Biotechnology, Inc. UBX was down, falling 35% to $1.1867 after the company reported topline results from the ASPIRE Phase 2b study in diabetic macular edema.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $68.94 while gold traded up 0.2% at $3,027.80.

Silver traded up 0.5% to $33.660 on Monday, while copper rose 0.2% to $5.1260.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.15%, Germany's DAX 40 rose 0.28% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.09%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.13%, while London's FTSE 100 gained 0.12%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Monday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.18%, China's Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.15%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.91% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 1.40%.

Economics

• The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to 0.18 in February versus a reading of -0.08 in January.
• The S&P Global services PMI climbed to 54.3 in March from 51 in February.
• The S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI declined to 49.8 in March versus 52.7 in the previous month.

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