After moving sharply higher early in the session, stocks have given back ground over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The major averages have pulled back well off their highs of the session but remain in positive territory.
Currently, the Dow is up 199.78 points or 0.5 percent at 42,114.53 and the Nasdaq is up 29.95 points or 0.2 percent at 18,112.15. The S&P 500 is also up 10.37 points or 0.2 percent at 5,732.63 after reaching a new record intraday high in early trading.
The early rally on Wall Street partly reflected strength in the tech sector, with chipmaker Micron (MU) helping lead the way higher.
Shares of Micron remain up by 13.8 percent after the company reported better than expected fiscal fourth quarter results and provided strong fiscal first quarter revenue guidance.
Stocks also benefited from the release of upbeat U.S. economic data, with a Labor Department report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged lower in the week ended September 21st.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims slipped to 218,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 222,000.
The dip surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to rise to 225,000 from the 219,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 216,000 in the week ended May 18th.
The Commerce Department also released a report showing new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods were virtually unchanged in the month of August.
The Commerce Department said durable goods orders came in flat in August after soaring by 9.9 percent in July. Economists had expected durable goods orders to tumble by 2.6 percent.
Excluding a decrease in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders climbed by 0.5 percent in August after edging down by 0.1 percent in July. Ex-transportation orders were expected to inch up by 0.1 percent.
Sector News
Airline stocks have shown a substantial move to the upside on the day, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring by 5.5 percent to its best intraday level in over three months.
Southwest Airlines (LUX) has helped lead the sector higher, skyrocketing by 10.6 percent after raising its third quarter revenue guidance and announcing a new share repurchase program.
Significant strength is also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 2.4 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Steel Index.
Semiconductor, gold and computer hardware stocks are also seeing considerable strength, while energy stocks have moved sharply lower along with the price of crude oil.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved sharply higher during trading on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index surged by 2.8 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index soared by 3.6 percent.
The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index has jumped by 2.0 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 1.5 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.1 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have moved modestly lower after seeing initial strength. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.9 basis points at 3.800 percent.
Business News
U.S. Stocks Give Back Ground After Early Rally But Remain Mostly Positive
2024-09-26 15:29:51
