NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks bounced on Thursday (Dec 29), as markets attempted a last-minute rally after gloomy trading sessions this week.
The Dow rose 345.09 points, or 1.05%, to 33,220.8; the S&P 500 gained 66.06 points, or 1.75%, at 3,849.28; and the Nasdaq Composite added 264.80 points, or 2.59%, at 10,478.09.
“It’s just relief,” said Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager at Globalt Investments in Atlanta. “Selling pressure has been overwhelming the market recently and we could be having a break. That allowed room for stocks to move, and with lower volume (that) can materialize into a pretty good day.”
This came as investors digested higher-than-anticipated jobless claims data, suggesting the world’s biggest economy could be cooling.
Initial jobless claims for the week ending Dec 24 rose to 225,000, as the Federal Reserve pushes on with efforts to bring down soaring inflation. Meanwhile, continuing unemployment claims for the week ending Dec 17 also picked up.
But trading volumes are thin during the holiday season, and this could “emphasise the size of moves” in stock markets, said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.
News flow remains slow in recent days as well.
Helping the rally was the heavyweight information technology sector, rebounding from a drop that weighed on markets this week, said a note from financial services firm Charles Schwab earlier Thursday.
Apple rose 2.8%, Meta was up 4%, while Alphabet gained 2.9%.
But overall, markets “continue to wrestle with the ultimate impact of aggressive Fed actions to try to combat inflation”, the note by Charles Schwab added. – AFP, Reuters