US markets end mostly higher on Thursday

04 Dec 2020 Evaluate

The US Markets ended mostly higher on Thursday as report from the Labor Department showing a much bigger than expected decrease in first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended November 28th. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims dropped to 712,000, a decrease of 75,000 from the previous week's revised level of 787,000. Street had expected jobless claims to edge down to 775,000 from the 778,000 originally reported for the previous month. The report said the less volatile four-week moving average also slipped to 739,500, a decrease of 11,250 from the previous week's revised average of 750,750. Meanwhile, a slight pullback in the rate of growth in U.S. service sector activity continued in the month of November, according to a report released by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

The ISM said its services PMI edged down to 55.9 in November after dipping to 56.6 in October, although a reading above 50 still indicates growth. Street had expected the index to slip to 56.0. However, upside remained capped as private report said that Pfizer expects to ship half of the coronavirus vaccines it originally planned for this year because of supply-chain problems. A company spokeswoman said that scaling up the raw material supply chain took longer than expected and noted the outcome of the clinical trial of the vaccine candidate was somewhat later than initially projected.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 85.73 points or 0.29 percent to 29,969.52 and Nasdaq gained 27.82 points or 0.23 percent to 12,377.18, while S&P 500 was down by 2.29 points or 0.06 percent 3,666.72.

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