U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 200 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 0.54% to 40,964.19 while the NASDAQ rose 2.53% to 17,581.11. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.64% to 5,525.69.

Leading and Lagging SectorsInformation technology shares rose by 3.5% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, health care shares fell by 0.1%.

Top HeadlineThe Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ:KHC) shares gained around 4% on Wednesday after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter adjusted EPS results.

Equities Trading UP                       

• noco-noco Inc. (NASDAQ:NCNC) shares shot up 72% to $0.2638.
• Shares of Primech Holdings Ltd  (NASDAQ:PMEC) got a boost, surging 62% to $0.8531  after gaining over 5% on Tuesday.
• NuZee, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUZE) shares were also up, gaining 64% to $6.05 after gaining around 3% on Tuesday.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Imunon, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMNN) shares dropped 57% to $1.4301 after the company announced a $10 million registered direct offering of 5 million  shares of common stock with unregistered warrants at a price of $2 per unit.
• Shares of FibroGen, Inc (NASDAQ:FGEN) were down 46% to $0.5534.  The company announced topline results from two late-stage trials evaluating the efficacy and safety of pamrevlumab in patients with pancreatic cancer and said its Precision Promise study in metastatic pancreatic cancer did not meet its primary endpoint.
• PepGen Inc. (NASDAQ:PEPG) was down, falling 44% to $9.54.  The company announced clinical data from the first dose cohort of PGN-EDO51.

CommoditiesIn commodity news, oil traded up 3.8% to $77.56 while gold traded up 0.7% at $2,468.20.

Silver traded up 1.5% to $28.955 on Wednesday, while copper rose 2.5% to $4.1865.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.8%, Germany's DAX rose 0.53% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.76%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 1.23%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 1.13%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 1.49%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumping 2.01% and S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.35%.

Economics

• U.S. pending home sales rose by 4.8% from the prior month in June compared to a revised contraction of 1.9%.
• U.S. crude oil inventories declined by 3.436 million barrels in the week ended July 26th, above market estimates of a 1.6 million barrel draw.
• Private businesses in the U.S. added 122,000 workers to their payrolls in July, versus a revised 155,000 in June.

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