U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 600 points on Wednesday.

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 1.43% to 43,130.23 while the NASDAQ rose 1.62% to 19,353.59. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.33% to 5,920.50.

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Leading and Lagging SectorsConsumer discretionary shares rose by 2.2% on Tuesday.

In trading on Tuesday, health care shares fell by 0.4%.

Top Headline

The headline Consumer Price Index rose 2.9% year-over-year in December, according to Wednesday's data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This marks an increase from November’s 2.7% and matches economist forecasts. Notably, it represents the third straight inflation increase and highest annual rate since July 2024.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices increased 0.4%, up from both the previous month’s 0.3% gain and the 0.3% predicted by analysts.

Equities Trading UP                       

• Safe & Green Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:SGBX) shares shot up 176% to $1.4899. Safe & Green Holdings announced the execution of a binding Letter of Intent to acquire 100% of the outstanding securities of New Asia Holdings Inc.
• Shares of Vision Marine Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:VMAR)got a boost, surging 58% to $2.21 after the company announced it filed its latest patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a Battery Authentication Encryption Technology.
• Moving iMage Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:MITQ) shares were also up, gaining 68% to $1.21.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Meiwu Technology Company Limited (NASDAQ:WNW) shares dropped 63% to $0.35.
• Shares of Aclarion, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACON) were down 62% to $0.0367 after the company reported the pricing of $14.4m public offering of common stock and warrants.
• Azitra, Inc. (NYSE:AZTR) was down, falling 40% to $0.2530 after the company announced the pricing of a $1.5 million public offering.

CommoditiesIn commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $78.41 while gold traded up 0.8% at $2,702.50.

Silver traded up 2% to $30.970 on Wednesday, while copper rose 0.7% to $4.3735.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 surged 1.2%, Germany's DAX 40 gained 1.6% and France's CAC 40 gained 1%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index gained 1.2%, while London's FTSE 100 gained 0.9%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.08%, China's Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.43%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gaining 0.34% and India's BSE Sensex rising 0.29%.

Economics

The headline Consumer Price Index rose 2.9% year-over-year in December, according to Wednesday's data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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