U.S. Stocks Extending Upward Trend, Lifting Nasdaq And S&P 500 To Record Highs

Stocks have moved mostly higher in morning trading on Thursday, extending the upward trend seen over the past several sessions. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have reached new record intraday highs, although the narrower Dow is little changed.

Currently, the Nasdaq is up 101.27 points or 0.6 percent at 15,912.85 and the S&P 500 is up 16.21 points or 0.4 percent at 4,676.78. Meanwhile, the Dow is Dow is off its worst levels but still down 12.99 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 36,144.59.

The continued strength on Wall Street partly reflects recent upward momentum, which has helped continually propel the major averages to new record highs.

Another batch of upbeat earnings news has helped generate further buying interest, as most major companies continue to report better than expected quarterly results.

Qualcomm (QCOM) is posting a standout gain after the chipmaker reported better than expected fiscal fourth quarter results and provided upbeat guidance.

Adding to the positive sentiment, the Labor Department released a report showing another modest decrease in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended October 30th.

The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 269,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 283,000.

Economists had expected initial jobless claims to edge down to 277,000 from the 281,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Jobless claims decreased for the fifth straight week, once again falling to their lowest level since hitting 256,000 in the week ended March 14, 2020.

On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched report on the employment situation in the month of October.

Employment is expected to jump by 425,000 jobs in October after rising by 194,000 jobs in September, while the unemployment rate is expected to edge down to 4.7 percent from 4.8 percent.

Traders also continue to react positively to the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy announcement, with the central bank announcing plans to scale back its asset purchases but signaling it won’t be in a hurry to begin raising interest rates.

Oil service stocks have shown a strong move to the upside in morning trading, driving the Philadelphia Oil Service Index up by 2.1 percent.

The rally by oil service stocks comes amid a rebound by the price of crude oil, with crude for December delivery jumping $1.90 to $82.76 a barrel after plummeting $3.05 to $80.86 a barrel on Wednesday.

Significant strength has also emerged among gold stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index.

Gold stocks are moving higher along with the price of gold for December delivery, which is spiking $31.80 to $1,795.70 an ounce.

With Qualcomm helping lead the way higher, semiconductor stocks are also turning in a strong performance, resulting in a 1.8 percent advance by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

Housing, telecom and retail stocks have also move to the upside, while some weakness is visible among banking and biotechnology stocks.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 0.9 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index advanced by 0.8 percent.

The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index has risen by 0.5 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.4 percent and the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.3 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are rebounding after turning lower over the course of the previous session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 3 basis points at 1.549 percent.