The US markets ended mostly in green on Thursday, as an historic milestone for Apple (AAPL) contributed to a substantial advance by the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Apple became the first U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization as traders continued to react positively to its upbeat fiscal third quarter results and guidance. However, renewed trade war concerns weighed on some of the other Dow components after President Donald Trump’s administration confirmed reports it is considering raising the rate of tariffs on Chinese imports. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Trump has directed him to consider increasing the proposed tariff rate on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent from the previously announced 10 percent.
Meanwhile, traders were also looking ahead to the release of the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday. Employment is expected to increase by 190,000 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate is expected to edge down to 3.9 percent. A day ahead of the release of the monthly report, the Labor Department released a report showing a modest increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended July 28th. The report said initial jobless claims inched up to 218,000, an uptick of 1,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 217,000. Traders had expected jobless claims to rise to 220,000. A separate report from the Commerce Department showed factory orders climbed by 0.7 percent in June, matching traders’ estimates.
The S&P 500 gained 13.86 points or 0.49 percent to 2,827.22 and Nasdaq jumped 95.24 points or 1.24 percent to 7,802.69, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by 7.66 points or 0.03 percent to 25326.16.
