Crude Oil Gains Over 2%; PepsiCo Posts Upbeat Q1 Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 100 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 0.22% to 48,570.07 while the NASDAQ rose 0.48% to 24,130.19. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.33% to 7,046.04.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed by 1.8% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary stocks fell by 1%.

Top Headline

PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) posted upbeat earnings for the first quarter on Thursday.

The company reported first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.61, outpacing the analyst consensus estimate of $1.55. Quarterly sales of $19.44 billion beat the Street view of $18.94 billion.

PepsiCo lowered its fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $8.46-$8.63 from $8.55-$8.71, compared with the $8.61 estimate. It also cut fiscal 2026 sales guidance to $95.803 billion-$97.682 billion from $97.682 billion-$99.561 billion, compared with the $98.373 billion estimate.

Equities Trading UP
           

• Myseum Inc (NASDAQ:MYSE) shares shot up 201% to $4.34. The company announced a rebrand to Myseum.AI.
• Shares of Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ:AEHR) got a boost, surging 21% to $88.40 following a record $41 million production order from a lead hyperscale AI customer.
• Onfolio Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:ONFO) shares were also up, gaining 107% to $1.38 as the company announced that it has entered into a $100 million equity facility agreement with an institutional investor.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Hub Cyber Security Ltd (NASDAQ:HUBC) shares dropped 37% to $0.16 after the company announced a 1-for-50 reverse stock split, effective April 20.
• Shares of Quidelortho Corp (NASDAQ:QDEL) were down 32% to $11.96 after the company reported preliminary first-quarter revenue results below estimates.
• Acurx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACXP) was down, falling 21% to $2.46 as the company reported a $7.1 million registered direct offering of 825,085 shares at $3.03 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.4% to $93.51 while gold traded up 0.3% at $4,837.00.

Silver traded down 0.1% to $79.52 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.1% to $6.0845.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.3%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.2%. London's FTSE 100 gained 0.6%, Germany's DAX gained 0.5% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.5% during the session.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 surging 2.38%, China's Shanghai Composite climbing 0.70%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 1.72% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.16%.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims declined to 207,000 in the week ended April 11, versus a revised 218,000 in the previous week. The latest reading figure also came in below market estimates of 215,000.
• The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index rose to 26.7 in April from 18.1 in the previous month, recording its highest reading since January 2025. The latest reading also topped market estimates of 10.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s general business activity index climbed nine points to a reading of -14 in April.
• U.S. industrial production fell 0.5% month-over-month in March, compared to market estimates of a 0.1% gain and following a 0.7% growth in February.

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