US markets settle higher on Thursday

05 Feb 2021 Evaluate

The US markets settled higher with gains of over one percent on Thursday. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 ended the session at new record closing highs. The markets continued to benefit from the upward momentum seen on Monday and Tuesday, which helped stocks largely offset the steep losses posted last week. Easing concerns about speculative trading have helped drive the markets higher along with mostly upbeat earnings news from big-name companies. Positive sentiment was also generated in reaction to a report from the Labor Department showing a continued decline in first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended January 30th. The report said initial jobless claims fell to 779,000, a decrease of 33,000 from the previous week's revised level of 812,000.

Street had expected jobless claims to edge down to 830,000 from the 847,000 originally reported for the previous week. Jobless claims dropped for the third straight week, falling to their lowest level since hitting 716,000 in the week ended November 28th. Meanwhile, new orders for US manufactured goods showed another significant increase in the month of December, according to a report released by the Commerce Department. The report said factory orders jumped by 1.1 percent in December after surging up by 1.3 percent for three consecutive months. Street had expected factory orders to climb by 0.7 percent. The bigger than expected increase in factory orders came as orders for non-durable goods spiked by 1.7 percent, while orders for durable goods rose by an upwardly revised 0.5 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 332.26 points or 1.08 percent to 31,055.86, Nasdaq gained 167.2 points or 1.23 percent to 13,777.74 and S&P 500 was up by 41.57 points or 1.09 percent to 3,871.74.

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