Stocks traded higher on Thursday, with the S&P 500 crossing over 4,000 for the first time ever, as market participants were encouraged by President Joe Biden's new infrastructure proposal. The Dow and Nasdaq also posted gains, with the Nasdaq outperforming as megacap technology names soared higher.

Thursday's session was both the start to April and the second quarter.

Despite all the optimism, the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims were weaker than expected for Thursday. Initial unemployment claims for the week ended March 27 rose back above 700,000 to greater-than-expected 719,000. However, the previous week's report was revised downward to 658,000 from 684,000. Meanwhile, continuing jobless claims declined to a less-than-expected 3.794 million.

Here's how the market settled to close out the shortened week:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): +1.18% or +46.92 points to 4,019.81

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.52% or +173.05 points to 33,154.60

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): +1.76% or +233.23 points to 13,480.11

For Stocks, Microsoft (MSFT  ) shares got a boost on Thursday following news that the tech giant will delivery more than 120,000 HoloLens augmented reality headsets to the U.S. Army in a deal with will be worth up to $21.9 billion over the next decade. Other megacap tech shares also jumped, with Alphabet (GOOG  ), Amazon (AMZN  ), Apple (AAPL  ) and Netflix (NFLX  ) gaining over 2%.

For Sector Performance, sectors ended Thursday's session mostly higher with only Utilities (XLU  ), Health Care (XLV  ) and Consumer Staples (XLP  ) closing in the red. Energy (XLE  ), Information Technology (XLK  ) and Communication Services (XLC  ) led gains, each increasing by at least 2%.

For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP  ) slipped on Thursday, consolidating recent gains from its recent rally this week on positive U.S. economic recovery outlooks. The dollar index dipped down 0.3% to 92.933 against six other global currencies. Gold (GLD  ) prices gained on Thursday as the dollar's value eased, while a worse-than-expected U.S. unemployment report added to the yellow metal's appeal as a safe-haven. Spot gold rose 1.2% to $1,727.86 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures settled 0.7% higher at $1,728.30 per ounce. Crude oil prices jumped higher on Thursday after OPEC and its allies readed a deal to gradually begin loosening production cuts. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) climbed 3.1% to $64.68 per ounce, while domestic index West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) increased by 3.6% to $61.26 each.

For Friday, most U.S. markets will be closed due to a federal holiday, but the Commerce Department will still release March's jobs report, which will likely sway trading on Monday.