US markets end mostly higher on Thursday

02 Sep 2022 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday as traders picked up stocks at reduced levels. Some support came in as the Labor Department released a report unexpectedly showing a modest decrease in first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended August 27th. The report showed initial jobless claims edged down to 232,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level of 237,000. The dip came as a surprise to participants, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 248,000 from the 243,000 originally reported for the previous week. However, upside remained capped on lingering concerns about higher interest rates and the impact on the global economy, which have weighed on the markets for the past several sessions.

Weakness also prevailed in the markets as the Commerce Department released a report showing US construction spending fell by more than expected in the month of July. The report showed construction spending dropped 0.4 percent to an annual rate of $1.777 trillion in July after falling by 0.5 percent to a revised rate of $1.784 trillion in June. Street had expected construction spending to edge down by 0.1 percent compared to the 1.1 percent slump originally reported for the previous month. On the sectoral front, Considerable strength emerged among healthcare and pharmaceutical stocks, with the Dow Jones US Health Care Index and the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index both climbing by 1.5 percent. Utilities and retail stocks also moved notably higher as the day progressed, contributing to the recovery by the broader markets.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 145.99 points or 0.46 percent to 31,656.42 and S&P 500 was up by 11.85 points or 0.3 percent to 3,966.85, while Nasdaq fell 31.08 points or 0.26 percent to 11,785.13.

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