The broader market rose on Thursday as market participants were encouraged by Washington lawmakers nearly reaching a stimulus deal ahead of the expected Friday deadline, outweighing concerns over an unexpected increase in unemployment claims. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose to fresh record intraday highs.
Congressional leaders have signalled that they are close to passing a roughly $900 billion coronavirus stimulus package that includes direct payments to individuals and additional unemployment aid. This comes as initial jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 12 rose to a more-than-expect 885,000, according to the Labor Department's new report. Unemployment claims increased from the previous week's upwardly revised 862,000. However, continue jobless claims fell by a more-than-expected to 5.508 million, though this decline was mostly due to more Americans enrolling into longer-term benefit programs.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.58% or +21.31 points to 3,722.48
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.49% or +148.76 points to 30,303.30
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +0.84% or +106.56 points to 12,764.75
For Stocks, a third antitrust lawsuit was issued against Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) on Thursday, this time from a group of bipartisan state attorneys general. This is the third antitrust lawsuit raised against the search engine giant in about two months. ContextLogic (NASDAQ: WISH), parent of the discount ecommerce platfrom Wish, jumped over 11% after dropping 16.4% in its first trading session. However, the stock is still trading below its IPO pricing of $24 per share.
For Sector Performance, only two of the sectors on the S&P fell amid broader market gains, with only Communication Services (NYSE: XLC) and Energy (NYSE: XLE) falling into negative territory. Top gainers included Real Estate (NYSE: XLRE), Materials (NYSE: XLB) and Health Care (NYSE: XLV), each rising over 1%.
For Commodities and Currencies, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) fell to its lowest point in two years against other major currencies on Thursday, with ongoing optimism toward near-term fiscal stimulus and a post-Brexit trade deal boosting risk appetite. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against other global currencies, fell below 90 for the first time since April 2018 at 89.867. Speaking about risk optimism, Bitcoin reached a new record of $23,000 on Thursday after passing the $20,000 milestone for the first time ever on Wednesday. Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices rose on the sliding dollar following more progress towards additional stimulus and the Federal Open Market Committee's dovish December monetary policy. Spot gold climbed 1.5% to $1,892.31 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures settled 2.21% higher at $1,898.60 per ounce. Crude oil futures also climbed on Thursday, with traders growing increasingly optimistic towards near-term demand recovery. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) increased to $51.42 per barrel, after touching a session high of $51.90, while West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) rose to $48.27 each. Both benchmarks have reached their highest levels since the commodity's crash earlier this year.
For Friday, investors will react to the expected passage of an additional stimulus bill.