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U.S. stocks rose on Thursday after initial jobless claims came in lower than expected.
The
rose 188 points, or 0.6%, while the
added 1.1% and the
rose 1.8%.
Initial jobless claims continued to decline, falling to 444,000 in the latest week, according to the Labor Department, a sign that the economy is continuing its recovery. “The jobless claims read shows once again that that we’re heading in the right direction,” said
Mike Loewengart,
managing director of investment strategy at ETrade.
The S&P 500 had dropped six of the last eight sessions amid growing concerns about rising inflation and the possibility the Federal Reserve will tighten policy in response. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed that policy makers thought it may be appropriate to start talking about reducing bond purchases if economic activity continues to pick up.
It was the first opportunity for traders in Asia and Europe to react to the latest minutes of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee. In Australia as well as Europe, stocks rebounded but not by the degree to which they slumped on Wednesday. The
slipped 0.5% in Hong Kong.
The market focus also was on cryptocurrencies, after the 11% slide in Bitcoin on Wednesday. The cryptocurrency reclaimed the $40,000 level in early action.
(ticker: SPCE) stock rose 14.7% after the company said its test flight for its SpaceShipTwo Unity will be Saturday, May 22.
(CSCO) rose 0.72 even after the networking services and equipment maker’s earnings outlook disappointed investors, with the company citing a component shortage.
(WEN) stock gained 1.1% after getting upgraded to Buy from Hold at Argus.
(VIAC) stock gained 4.6% after getting upgraded to Buy from Underperform at Bank of America.
(SEDG) stock gained 6.9% after getting upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
(MRK) stock gained 0.34% after getting downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus.
Write to Jacob Sonenshine at jacob.sonenshine@barrons.com
