US stocks close higher after grim week
Wall Street stocks bounced on Thursday, as markets attempted a last minute rally after gloomy trading sessions this week. The Dow Jones closed 1.1 percent up at 33,220. The S&P 500 jumped 1.8 percent to 3,849, and the Nasdaq rose 2.6 percent to 10,478. 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 December 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 December 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 flows have remained 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 on Thursday. Apple rose 2.8 percent, Meta was up four percent, while Alphabet gained 2.9 percent.  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)