Stocks rallied on Thursday as market participants were encouraged by another cooler-than-expected inflation report as they looked ahead to the start of the first-quarter earnings season. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared over 380 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose 1.3% and 2%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Boosting investor optimism, the producer price index (PPI) fell 0.5% month-over-month in March and rose just 2.7% over the prior year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday, offering another sign that U.S. inflation may be cooling. The measure of wholesale inflation excluding food and energy prices sled 0.1% month-over-month.
The cooler-than-expected PPI data followed the trend from March's consumer price index (CPI) report on Wednesday, that saw prices rise 5% year-over-year, which was the smallest increase in nearly two years.
Moreover, labor market data on Thursday pointed to a softening, but still tight job market. Initial unemployment filings totaled 239,000 for the week ended April 8, according to the Labor Department, slightly above estimates and a rise from the previous week's total of 228,000.
Investors poured into high-growth sectors like information technology
Elsewhere, Goldman Sachs said Warner Bros. Discovery
"It also represents the first time that WBD has come to market with a significant offer that leverages the combined content, technology and distribution resources of legacy Discovery and WarnerMedia," Goldman analyst Brett Feldman said in a Thursday note, quoted by CNBC. "As such, we believe that a successful roll-out of max during 2023-2024 could be an incremental positive catalyst for the stock, beyond investors' outlook for material cost synergies."
Looking ahead, all eyes will be on first-quarter earnings reports from financial juggernauts that include BlackRock