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US stocks drifted higher on Thursday as weekly jobless claims declined and investors eagerly awaited Friday’s monthly jobs report.
The S&P 500 edged up less than 0.1% per day after the broad market index closed at another all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 84 points, or 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3%.
The S&P 500 has repeatedly broken new records thanks to investor optimism that Covid-19 vaccines will accelerate economic recovery next year. But wealthy stock valuations and high infection levels dampen some of that cheer, leading to a more moderate rise in recent days.
Weekly jobless claims, seen as a proxy for layoffs, fell to 712,000 for the week ended November 28. This was less than economists had expected, reflecting a moderate improvement in the pace of the labor market recovery. The monthly jobs report will be released on Friday.
“Markets have risen, seeing 2021 as the year the economies will pick up,” said Peter Dixon, economist at Commerzbank. “There is concern that much of the good news has already been reflected, so I don’t expect markets to launch into the stratosphere anytime soon, but we might see a higher overall trend.”
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