US markets end sharply higher on Friday

27 Mar 2021 Evaluate

The US markets extended their previous session gains and ended higher with gains of over a percent each on Friday amid optimism about the economy reopening after President Joe Biden doubled his goal for the administration of coronavirus vaccines in his first 100 days in office. On Thursday Biden announced a new goal of administering 200 million coronavirus vaccinations within his first 100 days after reaching his goal of 100 million shots before his 60th day in office. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 137 million Covid vaccines have been administered, with nearly 15 percent of the population fully vaccinated. Banking stocks helped lead the way higher after the Federal Reserve announced restrictions on bank holding company dividends and share repurchases will end for most firms after June 30th. The Fed said firms with capital levels above those required by the current round of stress tests will no longer be subject to the additional restrictions.

On the economic data front, the Commerce Department released a report showing personal income pulled back sharply in the month of February. The Commerce Department said personal income plunged by 7.1 percent in February after skyrocketing by an upwardly revised 10.1 percent in January. Street had expected personal income to plummet by 7.3 percent compared to the 10.0 percent spike originally reported for the previous month. A separate report from the University of Michigan showed US consumer sentiment improved by even more than previously estimated in the month of March. The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index for March was upwardly revised to 84.9 from the preliminary reading of 83.0. Street had expected the index to be upwardly revised to 83.6.

Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 453.40 points or 1.39 percent to 33,072.88, Nasdaq rose 161.04 points or 1.24 percent to 13,138.72 and S&P 500 was up by 65.02 points or 1.66 percent to 3,974.54.

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