U.S. stocks traded slightly higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 0.2% on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.06% to 41,000.33 while the NASDAQ rose 0.22% to 17,121.18. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.06% to 5,523.29.

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Leading and Lagging SectorsConsumer discretionary shares climbed by 0.9% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, industrials shares fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 from the prior week to 227,000 in the week ending August 31, compared to market estimates of 230,000.

Equities Trading UP                       

• Eastside Distilling, Inc. (NASDAQ:EAST) shares shot up 212% to $2.39 following the disclosure of a merger agreement with Beeline Financial Holdings, Inc., a private mortgage technology firm.
• Shares of Hoth Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOTH) got a boost, surging 86% to $1.29 after the company announced data from the treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor associated papulopustular eruptions with its novel therapeutic HT-001.
• Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:APLD) shares were also up, gaining 40% to $4.5399 after the company entered agreements for a $160 million private placement financing priced at market, from a group of institutional and accredited investors including NVIDIA and Related Companies.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Singularity Future Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ:SGLY) shares dropped 29% to $4.76.
• Shares of Qualigen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLGN) were down 20% to $0.1470 after the company announced a $3.46 million public offering of 14,724,058 shares at $0.13 per share and pre-funded warrants.
• Sify Technologies Limited (NASDAQ:SIFY) was down, falling 22% to $0.5091.

CommoditiesIn commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $69.89 while gold traded up 0.9% at $2,547.80.

Silver traded up 1.9% to $29.105 on Thursday, while copper rose 0.9% to $4.1135.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.3%, Germany's DAX rose 0.2% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.5%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.7%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%.

Retail sales in the Eurozone rose by 0.1% from the previous month in July compared to a revised 0.4% decline in the earlier month. The HCOB Eurozone construction PMI came in unchanged at 41.4 in August. The S&P Global UK construction PMI declined to 53.6 in August compared to 55.3 in July.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 1.05%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.08%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.14% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.18%.

Average cash earnings in Japan rose by 3.6% year-over-year in July versus a 4.5% increase in the prior month.

Economics

• U.S. private businesses added 99,000 workers to their payrolls in August compared to a revised 111,000 gain in July and versus market estimates of 145,000.
• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 from the prior week to 227,000 in the week ending August 31, compared to market estimates of 230,000.
• U.S. non-farm business sector labor productivity rose by 2.5% in the second quarter versus the preliminary estimate of 2.3% and compared to the 0.4% gain recorded in the first quarter.
• Unit labor costs in the nonfarm business sector rose by an annualized rate of 0.4% during the second quarter.

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