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 (SPY  ): +0.80% or +27.40 points to 3,446.85

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.43% or +122.11 points to 28,425.57

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): +0.50% or +56.38 points to 11,420.98

For Major Stock News, Eaton Vance (EV  ) share rose almost 48% after Morgan Stanley (MS  ) agreed to acquire the investment management firm for nearly $7 billion. Shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN  ) increased after the drugmaker announced that it has submitted a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an emergency use authorization for its coronavirus antibody treatment. IBM (IBM  ) also popped higher after the tech giant announced that it would be breaking-up its IT infrastructure unit into its own public company by the end of 2021.

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 (UUP  ) left Thursday's session with little changed as market participants waited for updates on fresh U.S. economic stimulus. Gold (GLD  ) increased as more uncertainty towards the U.S. presidential election and bets that new stimulus would cause inflation drove investors away from riskier assets. Spot gold rose 0.1% to $1,889.50 per ounce, while gold futures settled 0.2% higher at $1,895.10 per ounce. Crude oil futures gained due to U.S. output shutdowns in the Gulf of Mexico due to the coming hurricane and more potential supply losses from Norway's oil workers strike. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) climbed 2% to $42.85 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) increased 3.1% higher to $41.19 per barrel.

For Friday, investors will focus on more updates surrounding the future of fresh U.S. coronavirus stimulus.