Wall Street staged a late day rally on Thursday as investors continued to weigh recession risks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 200 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite climbed about 1% and 1.6% higher, respectively.
A spotlight was on the central bank again on Thursday as Powell faced another line of questioning about the Fed's monetary policy and inflation by the Senate Banking Committee. Powell told lawmakers on Wednesday that the Fed is "strongly committed" to bringing down inflation, even at the risk of sparking a recession. Powell added that a soft landing with no economic downturn would be "very challenging."
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Netflix lays off 300 more employees as revenue growth slows:
Netflix
The job cuts, which represent about 3% of total employees, also come about a month after the company slashed about 150 positions following its first subscriber loss in a decade.
"Today we sadly let go of around 300 employees," Netflix said in a statement Thursday, quoted by CNBC. "While we continue to invest significantly in the business, we made these adjustments so that our costs are growing in lie with our slower revenue growth. We are so grateful for everything they have done for Netflix and are working hard to support them through this difficult transition."
Jobless claims dip lower amid tight labor market:
First-time jobless claims remained near a five-month high last week as labor market conditions remained tight and may be showing some signs of cooling.
Initial unemployment filings fell by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 229,000 for the week ended June 18, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims have been totaling around 200,000 since falling to a more-than 50-year low of 166,000 in March.
