The US markets ended higher on Thursday as a rebound from sharp losses last month continued after comments from President Donald Trump indicated potential progress in US-China trade relations. President Donald Trump said he had a very good conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping about trade. He also said meetings between the two at the upcoming G-20 summit are being scheduled. The comment from Trump comes following recent reports the US will impose tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports if the talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit fail to ease the trade war. Besides, Trump added that he had good discussion on North Korea.
On the economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing a slight drop in first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended October 27. The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 214,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 216,000. Street had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 215,000 originally reported for the previous week. A separate report from the Labor Department showed a slowdown in the pace of labor productivity growth in the third quarter. The Labor Department said labor productivity climbed by 2.2 percent in the third quarter after jumping by 3.0 percent in the second quarter. Street had expected productivity to increase by about 2.0 percent. Meanwhile, the report said unit labor costs surged up by 1.2 percent in the third quarter after slumping by 1.0 percent in the second quarter. The rebound in labor costs matched street estimates.
Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 264.98 points or 1.06 percent to 25380.74, Nasdaq gained 128.16 points or 1.75 percent to 7434.06 and S&P 500 was up by 28.63 points or 1.06 percent to 2740.37.
