Stocks rose Thursday, with the S&P 500 breaking its longest losing streak since October, as traders continued to weigh the likelihood of an upcoming recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose over 180 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite added 0.75% and 1%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.75% or +29.59 points to 3,963.51
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.55% or +183.56 points to 33,781.48
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +1.13% or +123.45 points to 11,082.00
Despite Thursday's gains, Wall Street is still headed for a negative week as downbeat comments from heads of big banks and a strong November jobs report raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will raise is key policy rate to around 5%. The Dow is down almost 2%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are each over 2.5% and 3% lower.
Many market participants expect the Fed to raise benchmark interest rates by 50 basis points at the conclusion of its Dec. 13-14 meeting, a downshift from the four consecutive 75 basis point hikes issued throughout the year. However, uncertainty remains surrounding how high the central bank will raise its policy rate, how long the U.S. economy will be in a high rate environment, and if that high rate environment will push the U.S. economy into a recession.
On the economic data front, first-time filings for unemployment insurance rose slightly for the week ended Dec. 3, totaling 230,000, Labor Department data showed on Thursday. That total was an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised print.
For stocks, Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) shares fell after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquisition of the video game developer. Meme-stock GameStop (NYSE: GME) rose 11% despite its disappointing earnings report Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, Rent the Runway (NASDAQ: RENT) shares jumped over 74% after the company raised its full-year revenue forecast and delivered earnings that beat Wall Street estimates.
Looking ahead, another round of earnings reports are due after market close Thursday, including reports from Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO), Costco (NYSE: COST), DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU) and Lululemon (NASDAQ: LULU). Another inflation report on producer prices is also slated for release Friday morning.