Tech stocks are rallying in early Friday trade, following the release of the jobless claims report for last week, which came in below expectations. Separate data also showed that initial jobless claims fell by more than expected last week.
September saw a bounce back in the stock market, which had some investors worried about a recession. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1,300 points on Monday after the markets closed at the end of August.
From today’s peak of 17,400, the DJIA has currently climbed to 16,988.
The market was buoyed by a drop in weekly jobless claims to 284,000 from 295,000 last week. The Labor Department also announced that claims for the previous week were revised up to 298,000 from 292,000.
The Nasdaq composite and the Russell 2000 both rose by close to half a percent and both of these indexes were less than 1% below their respective 52-week highs.
U.S. stocks rose on Friday, with the Nasdaq composite index and the small-cap Russell 2000 index posting their largest weekly gains of the year after both indexes posted more than 2 percent weekly gains on Friday.
The rebound in the technology sector boosted the Nasdaq 100 index, which was up 0.56 percent at 3,502.56 ahead of a report on private-sector job growth. The technology sector is seen as a bellwether for the economy.
New York stocks opened higher on Thursday, a day after a sharp plunge that erased all its 2018 gains. Dow futures rose 0.5 percent. S&P 500 futures added 0.4 percent while Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.5 percent.
Wall Street stocks closed higher on Friday, with the Nasdaq composite notching its first three-day winning streak of the month after a drop in initial unemployment claims fell to its lowest level since 1973.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 84.53 points or 0.4 percent, to close at 21,762.13. The S&P 500 index gained 12.06 points or 0.5 percent, to end at 2,457.47 and the Nasdaq composite was up 44.30 points or 0.8 percent, to 5,837.05.
New York (CNNMoney) Tech stocks rallied sharply on Thursday after the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level since 1973.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 178 points, or 0.9%, after briefly trading in positive territory following the Labor Department report on weekly jobless claims. The S&P 500 gained 0.9%, while the Nasdaq composite advanced 1%.
“There wasn’t much in the report to suggest anything bad going on,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading. “It’s a positive morning for the markets.”
Statistics released by the Labor Department showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 233,000 for the week ending Feb. 24. That was well below the 254,000 that economists surveyed by CNNMoney had forecasted.
“The market is attempting to see how monetary development will decelerate going ahead … we will in any case see energy, financials, industrials doing very well in the medium term, yet the more mainstream development victors will keep on driving the market for the future,” said Omar Aguilar, boss venture official of inactive value and multi-resource methodologies for Charles Schwab Speculation The executives.
Second-quarter income are relied upon to become 76.5%% for S&P 500 organizations, as indicated by Refinitiv IBES gauges. Up until this point, 88.5% of the 104 organizations in the benchmark record (.SPX) that detailed outcomes for the quarter beat benefit assumptions, the most noteworthy beginning around 1994.
After the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 631 points, or 3.1 percent, on Monday, it recovered some ground on Tuesday, with the index of 30 large-cap stocks rallying 497 points, or 2.3 percent.
Shares of big tech companies rebounded Thursday, aided by a decline in technology stocks on Wall Street and a decline in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits.
Venture-capital-backed technology stocks were hurt by a report released Wednesday by the Labor Department that said initial claims for unemployment benefits had risen 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 281,000 for the week ended April 13, the highest level since early March. These stocks also took a hit on Wednesday after the Labor Department reported that the economy added only 98,000 new jobs in March.
Thursday marked a turnaround for venture-capital-backed stocks.
These types of companies rely more heavily on corporate spending and capital spending than other parts of the market.
The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.08% rose 0.4% to 4,846.
