U.S. stocks traded higher toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 400 points on Wednesday.

The Dow traded up 1.07% to 41,177.51 while the NASDAQ rose 3.10% to 17,678.79. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 2.08% to 5,549.42.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Information technology shares jumped by 4.3% on Wednesday.

In trading on Wednesday, health care shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported better-than-expected earnings and sales results for its fourth quarter on Tuesday.

Intelligent Cloud segment revenue was $28.5 billion, up 19% year-over-year, while Azure and other cloud services revenue posted year-over-year growth of 29% last quarter.

Equities Trading UP

• Powell Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:POWL) shares shot up 40% to $186.83 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 GAAP EPS and sales.
• Shares of Modine Manufacturing Company (NYSE:MOD) got a boost, surging 24% to $122.84 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.
• Fiverr International Ltd. (NYSE:FVRR) shares were also up, gaining 22% to $26.78 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter financial results.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Imunon, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMNN) shares dropped 61% to $1.31 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 45% to $0.5640. 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 35% to $11.05. The company announced clinical data from the first dose cohort of PGN-EDO51.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 4.3% to $77.96 while gold traded up 1% at $2,476.40.

Silver traded up 1.5% to $28.945 on Wednesday, while copper rose 2.8% to $4.1965.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.80%, 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.

Now Read This:

• Jim Cramer Says This Home Improvement Chain Is A Buy Ahead Of Fed Rate Cut Cycle: 'I Would Pick Some Up Tomorrow'