Despite historic weekly jobless claims, Wall Street surged again on Thursday as optimism surrounding the Senate's economic stimulus package influenced trading. The Department of Labor's weekly unemployment claims report showed a record 3.28 million number of claims for the week ending March 21, which was far more than what many economists had expected and far above the number of claims after the 2008 financial crisis.
Here's how the market closed on its third-straight day of gains:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
In Major Stock News, Slack
In Stock Sector News, for the first time this week, every sector posted performance gains on Thursday. The gains were as follows: Utilities +8.39%, Real Estate +7.81%, Health Care +6.98%, Financials +6.43%, Industrials +6.41%, Information Technology +6.35%, Energy +6.05%, Communication Services +6.05%, Consumer Staples +5.67%, Materials +4.94% and Consumer Discretionary +4.30%.
Lastly, in Commodity and Currency News, crude oil prices dropped again as demand dwindles. West Texas Intermediate