US markets settle higher on Thursday

08 Dec 2023 Evaluate

The US markets ended higher on Thursday with Nasdaq settling over one percent higher. The strength on markets partly reflected ongoing optimism about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday. Street currently expect employment to increase by 180,000 jobs in November after rising by 150,000 jobs in October, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.9 percent. The jobs report could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week. While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will be looking to the jobs data to provide further evidence the central bank could cut rates as soon as March 2024.

On the sectoral front, Semiconductor stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 2.8 percent. Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) moved sharply higher after Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT) and OpenAI said they will use the company's newest AI chip, the Instinct MI300X. Substantial strength was also visible among airline stocks, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring by 2.6 percent to its best closing level in almost four months. On the economic data front, the Labor Department released a report showing a slight uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended December 2nd. The report said initial jobless claims ticked up to 220,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level of 219,000.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 62.95 points or 0.17 percent to 36,117.38, Nasdaq surged 193.28 points or 1.37 percent to 14,339.99 and S&P 500 was up by 36.25 points 0.8 percent to 4,585.59.  


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