WASHINGTON: US stocks scored solid gains in opening trade Thursday after the government reported new jobless claims edged lower in the latest sign of improvement in the troubled labor market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 56.00 points (0.43 percent) to 13,008.07 in the first five minutes of trade.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 11.85 points (0.40 percent) to 2,978.74.
The S&P 500, a broad measure of the markets' action, climbed 5.49 (0.40 percent) to 1,371.17.
Buoying Wall Street sentiment was the Labor Department's weekly report on new claims for unemployment insurance, a key indicator of the pace of layoffs.
Claims fell slightly last week, confirming a downward trend since the middle of last year.
"Overall, the report was again positive, and along with other labor market data, the broader improvement in the labor market is becoming more convincing," said Troy Davig at Barclays.
On Wednesday the main indexes closed in the red amid choppy trade after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke gave a cautious, somewhat downbeat reading on the economy to Congress.
The Dow dropped 0.41 percent and the S&P 500 lost 0.47 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.