Stocks rose higher on Thursday, with the S&P 500 notching a fresh closing high, as traders rallied behind two blowout earnings reports from Apple
The United States' first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) reached an annualized rate of 6.4%, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Traders took this as a sign that the U.S. economy started the year off with accelerated commercial activity, which is good for recovery.
Meanwhile, new weekly unemployment claims dropped to a new pandemic low of 553,000 for the week ended April 24, according to the Labor Department's new report. While the total was slightly higher than expected, it was still below the previous week. Continuing jobless claims, however, unexpectedly rose higher for the week ended April 17, totalling 3.660 million from the prior week's downwardly revised 3.651 million.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
For Stocks, shares of Uber Technologies
For Sector Performance, sectors on the S&P 500 ended mostly higher with the blue-chip index, with only Information Technology
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar
For Friday, market participants will focus on a barrage of fresh economic data for March, including consumer spending, personal income, and core inflation, as well as April's final consumer sentiment index reading. Traders are also expected to react to Amazon's