Stocks rebounded from Wednesday's lows on Thursday as market participants poured back into tech shares. All three major benchmarks rose by closing bell, with mega-cap tech stocks like Apple
On the economy front, producer prices rose more-than-expected in April, was service demand pushing prices sharply higher and demonstrating more inflation pressure. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) producer price index (PPI) for April increased by 0.6% month-over-month, topping estimates for a 0.3% rise, according to Bloomberg consensus data. Excluding food and energy prices, PPI matched March's gain with a rise of 0.7%.
For the year-to-date, producer prices climbed 6.2%, marking the greatest increase since the BLS first began calculating the 12-month data in 2010. Consensus economists expected a rise of 5.8%.
Meanwhile, new weekly jobless claims dropped to a new pandemic low of 473,000 for the week ended May 8, according to the Labor Department's latest report. The new total beat estimates for 490,000 and fell from the upwardly revised 507,000 tallied the prior week. Continuing unemployment claims also declined to 3.655 million for the week ended May, down from the previous week's 3.7 million reported.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
For Stocks, Tesla
For Sector Performance, every sector but Energy
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar
For Friday, market participants will focus on fresh data for April retail sales and a preliminary May consumer sentiment reading.