Stocks rose on Thursday, rebounding from the sharp sell-off during the previous session on better-than-expected unemployment data. Wednesday's declines followed a speculative buying frenzy in heavily shorted stocks which made investors concerned about the future trajectory of the market, calling into question whether or not a correction was near.

These stocks, including GameStop (GME  ) and AMC Entertainment (AMC  ), swung on Thursday and finished lower after multiple trading halts. Many brokerage firms like Robinhood took steps to restrict trading of these stocks on their platforms.

Here's how the market settled on Thursday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): +0.98% or +36.61 points to 3,787.38

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.99% or +300.19 points to 30,603.36

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): +0.50% or +66.56 points to 13,337.16

For Economic Activity, fourth quarter U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at a 4.0% annualized rate, falling shot of the 4.2% expected increase for the final three months of 2020. This slowdown followed a record 33.4% annualized increase in the previous quarter. More positively, weekly jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 23 totaled 847,000, according to the Labor Department, beating estimates for 875,000. However, the previous week's unemployment claims were upwardly revised to 914,000 from the 900,000 reported prior.

For Sector Performance, every sector on the S&P 500 reversed the previous session's losses and gained on Thursday, with Utilities (XLU  ), Energy (XLE  ), Communication Services (XLC  ), Health Care (XLV  ), Industrials (XLI  ), Materials (XLB  ) and Financials (XLF  ) rose over 1%.

For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP  ) ended lower in chopping trading on Thursday, with earlier gains coming from weakening risk sentiment for global currencies. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against other currencies, was last down 0.22% on the day at 90.46. Gold (GLD  ) slightly declined on Thursday as investors moved more toward the dollar as a safe haven. Spot gold slipped 0.2% to $1,840.00 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures eased 0.3% to $1,838.60 per ounce. Crude oil futures also fell on Thursday as demand concerns surrounding delayed vaccine rollouts and pandemic related travel restrictions pressured outlooks. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) settled 0.48% lower at $55.54 per barrel, while domestic index West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) decreased 0.96% to $52.34 each.

For Friday, market participants will turn their attention to a slew of economic data releases for December, including reports for personal income, consumer spending and core inflation.