US stocks end quiet session higher
Wall Street stocks finished a quiet session mostly higher on Thursday, concluding a holiday-shortened trading week that has included weakening economic data. Reports earlier in the week showed a softening in the labour market, a contraction in the manufacturing sector and slowing growth in services. The Dow Jones ended flat at 33,485. The S&P 500 gained 0.4 percent to 4,105, while the Nasdaq advanced 0.8 percent to 12,087. Markets will be closed on Friday to mark Good Friday, meaning that investors will have to wait until Monday to trade on important March employment figures. "Bad news in the jobs data – if that's what it brings early on Friday – may be good news from an interest rate standpoint, but a slowing economy isn't really something that tends to help stocks," said a note from Charles Schwab. US stocks spent much of Thursday morning in the red, but pushed into positive territory after Treasury bond yields eased. Investors are becoming more hopeful that the Federal Reserve will hold off on additional interest rate hikes, in light of a cooling economy. Among individual companies, shares of Levi Strauss sank 16 percent as it confirmed its annual earnings forecast, citing its "cautious outlook on the macro-environment." (AFP)