US markets end higher on Thursday

27 Dec 2019 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher on Thursday, hitting record highs as the markets rallied into the end of 2019. The likely signing of a phase one US-China trade deal has helped to maintain positive sentiment on markets. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said officials from Beijing and Washington were in close communication about detailed arrangements for the deal’s signing and other follow-up work. Those comments follow remarks from President Trump, who on Christmas Eve said that the deal is done, it’s just being translated right now. Trump also said that he and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, would hold a signing ceremony for the partial trade resolution in January. He said ‘We will be having a quicker signing because we want to get it done’.

Adding to the positive sentiment, the Labor Department released a report showing a continued pullback in first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended December 21. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 222,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week's revised level of 235,000. Street had expected jobless claims to drop to 224,000 from the 234,000 originally reported for the previous week. Jobless claims fell for the second straight week after reaching their highest level since September of 2017 in the week ended December 7. Meanwhile, the report said the less volatile four-week moving average rose to 228,000, an increase of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average of 225,750. The Labor Department said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell by 6,000 to 1.719 million in the week ended December 14.

Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 105.94 points or 0.37 percent to 28621.39, Nasdaq gained 69.51 points or 0.78 percent to 9022.39 and S&P 500 was up by 16.53 points or 0.51 percent to 3239.91.

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