S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit records on positive labor-market data

  • Date: 05-Feb-2021
  • Source: Business Insider
  • Sector:Economy
  • Country:Middle East
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S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit records on positive labor-market data

US equities gained on Thursday as declining COVID-19 case counts and jobless claims fueled a fourth straight day of market gains.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at record highs, lifted by rallying tech and bank stocks. The materials sector was the only one of 11 groups in the S&P 500 to decline through the session.

Investors extended the winning streak as weekly filings for unemployment benefits once again landed below estimates. New US jobless claims dropped to an unadjusted 779,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected claims to total 830,000. The reading marks a third straight weekly decline in claims and the lowest reading in two months.

Continuing claims, which track Americans receiving unemployment benefits, fell to 4.7 million for the week that ended January 23. That also beat forecasts.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET close on Thursday:

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"We aren't anywhere close to where we were this time last year. The rollout of the vaccine will surely help