Stocks rose all throughout Thursday, but closed lower from session highs as market participants weighed a disappointing update to U.S. weekly unemployment claims against cloudy outlook towards more coronavirus fiscal stimulus in the near-term.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated on Thursday during her weekly briefing that she would not advance a standalone bill to provide more relief aid to airlines, due to the need for broader stimulus measures as well. However, Pelosi signaled that she may be open to passing a smaller stimulus bill, which Senate Republicans and the White House may be more favorable towards.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department's weekly unemployment claims for the week ended Oct. 3 totaled 840,000, which was 20,000 claims higher than consensus economists had forecasted, but lower than the previous week. Continuing jobless claims fell unexpectedly below 11 million, so it seems that job market is recovering, but at a much slower pace than desired.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
For Major Stock News, Eaton Vance
For Sector Performance, every industry continued gains from Wednesday's session. The positive performance gains were as follows: Energy +3.73%, Utilities +1.80%, Real Estate +1.58%, Financials +1.36%, Materials +1.05%, Communication Services +0.96%, Industrials +0.93%, Consumer Staples +0.59%, Health Care +0.47%, Information Technology +0.45% and Consumer Discretionary +0.44%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar
For Friday, investors will focus on more updates surrounding the future of fresh U.S. coronavirus stimulus.