US stocks jump on strong retail, labor data

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks jumped back into record territory early Thursday following surprisingly strong US retail sales and labor data.

Retail sales surged 9.8 percent in March compared to the prior month, as Americans spent more in restaurants and on sporting goods, gardening and cars as coronavirus vaccines became more widespread.

The Labor Department said there were 576,000 new jobless claims filed last week, seasonally adjusted, far fewer than analysts had expected and the fewest since the week ended March 14, 2020 -- just before the coronavirus sparked business disruptions and millions of layoffs.

The data bolstered confidence in the US economic recovery. Analysts also pointed to lower US Treasury yields as a supporting factor in the early gains.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6 percent at 33,948.18.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent to 4,151.73, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.1 percent to 14,006.10.

Among individual companies, Citigroup climbed 0.9 percent after it announced Thursday it will exit 13 international consumer banking markets and shift its focus to wealth management in China, India and other countries.

Coinbase climbed 3.6 percent in its second day as a public company after the cryptocurrency exchange entered the Nasdaq on Wednesday well above its reference price.