Nasdaq Moves Higher; US Inflation Rate Accelerates In March

U.S. stocks traded mixed toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 50 points on Friday.

The Dow traded down 0.57% to 47,912.40 while the NASDAQ rose 0.22% to 22,872.73. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.16% to 6,813.62.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed by 1.2% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, consumer staples stocks fell by 1.2%.

Top Headline

The annual inflation rate in the U.S. surged to 3.3% in March, recording the highest reading since May 2024 and following 2.4% in both February and January.

Equities Trading UP
           

• Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ZNTL) shares shot up 41% to $6.25. Guggenheim analyst Michael Schmidt maintained Zentalis Pharmaceuticals with a Buy and raised the price target from $6 to $10.
• Shares of CoreWeave Inc (NASDAQ:CRWV) got a boost, surging 13% to $103.55 following reports suggesting that Anthropic agreed to rent the company’s computing power.
• Organon & Co. (NASDAQ:OGN) shares were also up, gaining 27% to $8.76 following reports suggesting Sun Pharmaceutical submitted a binding offer to acquire the company.

Equities Trading DOWN

• One and one Green Technologies. Inc (NASDAQ:YDDL) shares dropped 62% to $5.26 after the company announced a $13 million follow-on offering.
• Shares of Angel Studios, Inc. (NYSE:ANGX) were down 27% to $2.08 after the company announced the pricing of its $30 million offering of 14.3 million shares at $2.10 per share.
• Mega Fortune Company Limited (NASDAQ:MGRT) was down, falling 21% to $38.39.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $97.98 while gold traded down 0.2% at $4,806.90.

Silver traded up 0.4% to $76.715 on Friday, while copper rose 2.6% to $5.9150.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.6%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.8%. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.1%, Germany's DAX gained 0.4% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.4% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 1.84%, China's Shanghai Composite climbing 0.51%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rising 0.55% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 1.20%.

Economics

• The annual inflation rate in the U.S. surged to 3.3% in March, recording the highest reading since May 2024 and following 2.4% in both February and January.
• The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index dipped 11% to 47.6 in early April, down from market expectations of 52.
• U.S. factory orders came in unchanged from the previous month at $619.6 billion in February, compared to market estimates of a 0.2% decline.

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