The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday optimism about ramped up efforts to combat the coronavirus under new President Joe Biden have also helped to prop up the markets. Biden has revealed new details of his plan to tackle the pandemic, which includes providing more state and local funding to accelerate the vaccine rollout and using the Defense Production Act to increase production of personal protective equipment. Traders also remained optimistic about more fiscal stimulus under Biden, who has called for a new $1.9 trillion relief package. However, upside remained capped as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following the run to record highs.
On the economic data front, the Labor Department released a report showing a pullback in initial jobless claims in the week ended January 16th. The report said initial jobless claims fell to 900,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week's revised level of 926,000. Street had expected jobless claims to drop to 910,000 from the 965,000 originally reported for the previous week. Even with the downward revision, the number of claims in the previous week represented the most since reaching 1.011 million in the week ended August 22nd.
Nasdaq gained 73.67 points or 0.55 percent to 13,530.92 and S&P 500 was up by 1.22 points or 0.03 percent to 3,853.07, while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 12.37 points or 0.04 percent to 31,176.01.
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