US markets end higher on Thursday

16 Jun 2023 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher with gains of over one percent on Thursday on optimism about the outlook for interest rates following the release of a slew of U.S. economic data. While the Federal Reserve forecast further rate hikes on Wednesday, traders seem hopeful the central bank will not follow through. The optimism partly stemmed from a report from the Labor Department showing initial jobless claims held at their highest level since October 2021 in the week ended June 9th. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims came in at 262,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised level. Street had expected jobless claims to dip to 249,000 from the 261,000 originally reported for the previous week. A separate Labor Department report showing import prices in the U.S. fell by much more than expected in the month of May has also generated optimism about the outlook for inflation.

The report said import prices slid by 0.6 percent in May, reflecting a sharp pullback in prices for fuel imports and a modest decrease in prices for non-fuel imports. Street had expected import prices to edge down by 0.1 percent. On the sectoral front, software stocks saw substantial strength on the day, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index surging by 2.7 percent to its best closing level in well over a year. Considerable strength also emerged among interest-rate sensitive housing stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 percent jump by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. The index also reached a more than one-year closing high. Transportation stocks also showed a significant move to the upside, driving the Dow Jones Transportation Average up by 1.6 percent to its best closing level in three months.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 428.73 points or 1.26 percent to 34,408.06, Nasdaq surged 156.34 points or 1.15 percent to 13,782.82 and S&P 500 was up by 53.25 points or 1.22 percent to 4,425.84.  


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