The US markets closed mostly up on Thursday, with four straight day of increases on the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq Composite ended the holiday-shortened week with solid gains. The weekly gain was the best since July 2013 for S&P 500. US markets are closed on Friday on account of Good Friday. On the economy front, the number of people applying for unemployment-insurance benefits is sticking close to the lowest level since 2007, signaling that employers are maintaining a slow pace of layoffs. The initial claims for unemployment-insurance benefits reached 304,000 in the week that ended April 12. That tally is up 2,000 from 302,000 in the prior week, which was the lowest level since September 2007. A reading of manufacturing sentiment in the Philadelphia region improved in April, contradicting a disappointing regional index from the New York Fed released earlier in the week. The Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing index rose to a reading of 16.6 in April from 9.0 in March. It is the strongest reading since last September. Any reading above zero indicated expansion. The index has improved markedly from a negative 6.3 reading in February that was blamed on severe winter weather.
The Nasdaq Composite was up by 9.29 points or 0.23 percent, to 4,095.52, the S&P 500 gained 2.54 points or 0.14 percent, to close at 1,864.85 while, Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 16.31 points or 0.10 percent, to 16,408.54.
The Indian ADRs closed mostly in green on Thursday; ICICI Bank was up 1.30%, HDFC Bank was up 0.52%, Infosys was up 0.30% and Tata Motors was up 0.11%. On the other hand, Wipro was down 0.10%.