Stocks climbed higher on Thursday, following back-to-back days of sharp gains, as Wall Street were encouraged by the Federal Reserve's long-anticipated decision to increase short-term interest rates and the latest developments surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose over 400 points higher, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq composite both added over 1% each.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Amazon closes deal to buy MGM for $8.5 billion:
Amazon
"We welcome MGM employees, creatros, and talent to Prime Video and Amazon Studios, and we look forward to working together to create even more opportunities to deliver quality storytelling to our customers," Amazon said in press statement, signaling there would be no layoffs following the transaction.
Amazon first announced plans to buy the entertainment studio in May 2021, and the deals close comes after a deadline passed for the U.S. Federal Trade commission to challenge the deal.
Jobless claims fall in-line with pre-pandemic levels:
New jobless claims improved at a more-than-expected rate last week as the labor market recovers from its pandemic-era lows.
Initial unemployment claims for the week ended March 12 totaled 214,000, according to the Labor Department's latest report published Thursday, down from the previous week's print of 227,000 and in-line with pre-pandemic weekly averages.
Moreover, continuing jobless claims, which track the total number of individuals claiming benefits across regular state programs, also fell lower for the week ended March 5, totaling 1.419 million. Continuing claims have now totaled under 1.5 million for four straight weeks, compared to an average of about 1.7 million per week in 2019.
Here's how benchmarks started trading after market open:
S&P 500 Index: -0.32% or -13.81 points to 4,344.05
Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.37% or -126.25 points to 33,936.85
Nasdaq Composite Index: -0.59% or -79.61 points to 13,356.94
