Global investors on Thursday digested new data, earnings reports, and policy statements around US President Joe Biden's social spending framework. In Europe, the FTSE edged down 0.05%, the German DAX edged down 0.06%, the French CAC rose 0.75%, and the broad STOXX 600 index eked up 0.24%. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 0.68%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) climbed 1.39%, the small cap Russell 2000 (.RUT) rose 2.02%, and the broad S&P 500 (.INX) index rose 0.98%.
Among US stocks in the S&P 500, the biggest decliners today were led by aerospace and defense firm Northrop Grumman
The biggest gainers were led by test equipment firm Teradyne
In commodities markets, as of press time, the price of international Brent crude oil dipped 0.08%, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 0.48%. US natural gas futures fell 7.52% in a sharp reversal from Wednesday. The prices of futures for gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and copper were all largely unchanged. Cotton futures rose 2.83%, while coffee futures dipped 1.07%. In crypto asset markets, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) rose 3.16% in a rebound from this week's correction, Ether (ETH) jumped 6.05%, Binance Coin (BNB) jumped 7.67%, Cardano (ADA) rose 1.48%, and Solana (SOL) rose 2.57%.