US markets end higher as investors focus on progress on trade pact with China

10 Jan 2020 Evaluate

Magnifying their previous session’s rally, the US markets ended higher with gains of over half percent on Thursday  as investors focused on progress on the trade pact with China due to be signed next week and amid an easing of concerns about war in the Middle East. China’s top trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He, will lead a delegation to Washington next week to sign a phase-one trade deal.  Trade negotiations have been a driver for market moves for more than a year because President Trump’s imposition of import tariffs has slowed global economic growth. The progress on China trade talks has helped, at least momentarily, to put the threat of conflict between the Washington and Tehran on the back burner after the Islamic Republic late Tuesday launched a missile strike on US military bases in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of one of its top generals last week. All three benchmarks set new intraday and closing highs, with the Dow nearing the psychologically important 29,000 threshold.

On the economic data front, with the more closely watched monthly jobs report looming, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for US unemployment benefits fell by more than expected in the week ended January 4. The report said initial jobless claims dropped to 214,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of 223,000. Street had expected jobless claims to edge down to 220,000 from the 222,000 originally reported for the previous week. The Labor Department said the four-week moving average also slid to 224,000, a decrease of 9,500 from the previous week's revised average of 233,500. The less volatile four-week moving average pulled back after hitting its highest level since January of 2018 in the previous week.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 211.81 points or 0.74 percent to 28956.90, Nasdaq gained 74.18 points or 0.81 percent to 9203.43 and S&P 500 was up by 21.65 points or 0.67 percent to 3274.70.

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