Stocks rose mostly higher on Thursday as bets on another massive stimulus package and increased government spending under the new Biden administration turned economic recovery sentiment positive. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 Index closed at record highs, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq outperforming as investors were optimistic towards quarterly earnings reports from other FAANG stocks next week after Netflix's
President Joe Biden began his term on Wednesday by signing over a dozen executive orders aimed at addressing the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, global relations, and rolling back some of the Trump administration's controversial immigration policies. Biden also signed more orders on Thursday that will help with the nation's strategies moving forward with the pandemic.
Meanwhile, weekly unemployment claims fell by a more-than-expected rate for the week ended Jan. 16, according to fresh data from the Labor Department. Initial jobless claims totalled 900,000, which was better than the 935,000 expected and the previous week's revised total of 920,000. Continuing unemployment claims also improved at a faster-than-expected pace, totaling 5.054 million in its latest report, down from the revised 5.181 million from the week prior.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
For Stocks, shares of homebuilding stocks like KB Home,
For Sector Performance, most sectors on the S&P 500 ended Thursday's session lower despite the benchmark's closing high, with only Information Technology
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar
For Friday, market participants will turn their attention to fresh data for service and manufacturing flash PMIs for January.