Stocks pushed higher on Thursday after the Labor Department's weekly unemployment claims came under consensus expectations and quarterly earnings resulted in some better-than-expected results. All three major market benchmarks gained, with the Nasdaq closing above 11,000 for the first time ever as investors bought into the ongoing tech rally. Yet, real market growth in hinging on more coronavirus economic relief from the federal government, which has reach a lockup in Congress over key issues. The eventual stimulus decision will help give more direction to the market's future and economic recovery.
On Thursday, the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims report totaled a less-than-expected 1.186 million for the week ended August 1, down from the prior week's 1.435 million. Continuing unemployment claims also fell from the previous week, with the week ended July 25 dropping to 16.107 million from the week before's 16.951 million. Although the numbers are better than predicted, it remains above 1 million for the twentieth week in a row, or since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic economic crisis.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
For Major Stock News, big tech climbed higher on Thursday amid market anxiety, with Amazon
For Stock Sector Performance, most industries gained on Thursday, with only Energy -0.71% , Health Care -0.57%, Materials -0.43% and Financials -0.15% falling behind. The positive performance gains were as follows: Communication Services +2.45%, Information Technology +1.46%, Utilities +0.52%, Consumer Discretionary +0.50%, Industrials +0.32%, Real Estate +0.09% and Consumer Staples +0.02%.
For Commodity and Currency, the U.S. Dollar
For Friday, the market's direction will be determined by the Labor Department's July jobs report due to lack of direction from Washington's new economic stimulus package.