US markets end higher on shrugging off inflation fears

11 Jun 2021 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher on Thursday as investors shrugged off a key inflation report that showed a bigger-than-expected increase in price pressures. The Labor Department said its consumer price index rose by 0.6 percent in May after climbing by 0.8 percent in April. Street had expected consumer prices to increase by 0.4 percent. Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices climbed by 0.7 percent in May following a 0.9 percent advance in April. Core prices were also expected to rise by 0.4 percent. The report also showed consumer prices in May were up by 5.0 percent compared to the same month a year ago, reflecting the biggest spike since August of 2008. The annual rate of core consumer price growth also accelerated to 3.8 percent in May, which represents the biggest jump since June of 1992.

Further, support also came in as the Labor Department released a separate report showing another modest decrease in first-time claims for unemployment benefits. The report showed initial jobless claims edged down to 376,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 385,000. Street had expected jobless claims to dip to 370,000. With the slight drop, jobless claims once again fell to their lowest level since hitting 256,000 in the week ended March 14, 2020. On the sectoral front, Substantial strength was also visible among biotechnology stocks, as reflected by the 2.4 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index. The index ended the session at its best closing level in almost four months.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 19.1 points or 0.06 percent to 34,466.24, Nasdaq surged 108.58 points or 0.78 percent to 14,020.33 and S&P 500 was up by 19.63 points or 0.47 percent to 4,239.18.

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