The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 23,875.89 on Thursday with a gain of 211.25 points or 0.89%. The S&P 500 closed at 2,881.19 for a gain of 32.77 points or 1.15%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 8,979.66 for a gain of 125.27 points or 1.41%. The VIX Volatility Index was lower at 31.77 for a loss of 2.35 points or -6.89%.
Thursday’s market movers
Stocks rallied Thursday after a report of jobless claims slowing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 3.169 million jobless claims, down from the previous week’s 3.846 million.
In the S&P 500, energy and financials led gains. On the earnings calendar:
- Uber (UBER, Financial): Reported revenue of $3.54 billion increased 14.2% year over year and beat estimates by $170 million. A first-quarter GAAP loss of $1.70 per share missed estimates by 80 cents.
- Raytheon Technologies (RTX, Financial): Revenue of $18.2 billion decreased 0.9% year over year and beat estimates by $1.17 billion. A first-quarter GAAP loss of 10 cents missed estimates by 98 cents and non-GAAP EPS of $1.78 beat estimates by 73 cents.
- Spartan Motors (SPAR, Financial) gained 22.03% after reporting an earnings beat of 10 cents.
- Moderna (MRNA, Financial) gained 8.66% after reporting an earnings beat of 2 cents.
Economic reports affecting market trading included the following:
- Around 3.169 million people filed for jobless claims, down from the previous week’s 3.846 million. Continuing jobless claims increased to 22.647 million, up from 18.011 million.
- Nonfarm productivity decreased 2.5% in the first quarter and unit labor costs increased 4.8%.
- The Treasury held auctions for four-week bills at a rate of 0.095% and eight-week bills at a rate of 0.110%. The 10-year Treasury ended with a yield of 0.640%.
- Consumer credit decreased $12.1 billion in March following an increase of $20 billion.
- Freddie Mac released its weekly mortgage market survey. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.26%, up from 3.23%. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.73%, down from 2.77%.
The following stocks led gains for the day:
- PayPal (PYPL, Financial) 14.39%
- T-Mobile (TMUS, Financial) 10.82%
- Boeing (BA, Financial) 5.57%
- Disney (DIS, Financial) 4.65%
- American Express (AXP, Financial) 3.25%
Small-cap stocks
In small caps, the Russell 2000 closed at 1,280.41 for a gain of 17.41 points or 1.38%. The S&P 600 closed at 740.46 for a gain of 11.05 points or 1.51%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Growth Index closed at 8,836.66 for a gain of 148.30 points or 1.71%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Value Index closed at 6,224.78 for a gain of 115.98 points or 1.90%.
Other notable indexes
Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1,620.08 for a gain of 26.31 points or 1.65%; the S&P 100 at 1,325.44 for a gain of 12.41 points or 0.95%; the Nasdaq 100 at 9,101.88 for a gain of 117.02 points or 1.30%; the Russell 3000 at 1,669.09 for a gain of 21.16 points or 1.28%; the Russell 1000 at 1,587.89 for a gain of 19.86 points or 1.27%; the Wilshire 5000 at 29,170.10 for a gain of 359.16 points or 1.25%; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 548.79 for a gain of 4.16 points or 0.76%.
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