US markets end higher on Thursday

13 Jul 2018 Evaluate

After the pullback seen in the Wednesday’s session, the US markets ended higher on Thursday, on account of optimism about the upcoming earnings season, with several leading financial companies due to report their quarterly results on Friday. Further, easing trade concerns also contributed to the rally following report of US threats of a new 10% tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports contributed to the weakness on Wednesday. China vowed to take countermeasures in response to the new tariffs, although the markets responded positively to the lack of an announcement of specific retaliation by the Chinese. Traders also seem optimistic the continued tariff threats will eventually bring the US and China to the table for talks that could result in a long-term trade agreement. Besides, Tech firms led the stock markets higher, as investors returned to the pro-growth investment strategy that has worked throughout much of the long-running rally.

On the economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing consumer prices edged slightly higher in the month of June. The Labor Department said its consumer price index inched up by 0.1% in June after rising by 0.2% in May. Street had expected consumer prices to increase by 0.2%. Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices rose by 0.2% for the second consecutive month, matching street estimates. While consumer prices showed only a modest monthly increase, the annual rate of growth still accelerated to a more than six-year high of 2.9% in June from 2.8% in May. Core consumer price growth also edged up to 2.3% in June from 2.2% in May, reaching its highest level since January of 2017. Besides, a separate report from the Labor Department showed first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell by more than expected in the week ended July 7. The report said initial jobless claims dropped to 214,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 232,000. Street had expected jobless claims to edge down to 225,000.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 224.44 points or 0.91 percent to 24924.89, the S&P 500 surged 24.27 points or 0.87 percent to 2798.29 and the Nasdaq was up by 107.31 points or 1.39 percent to 7823.92.


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