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- Major stock indexes rose around the globe on Thursday, with the S&P 500 climbing more than 1 per cent
- The benchmark index was led higher by sharp gains in technology shares, while U.S. Treasury yields fell after a weaker-than-expected U.S. business activity reading
- Cryptocurrencies bounced back from their recent sharp fall, but were well off the day’s highs by afternoon New York time, as U.S. regulators signalled greater oversight for the sector
- Investors are also still digesting minutes from the Fed’s meeting last month, which showed a number of officials thought that if the recovery holds up it might be appropriate to “begin discussing a plan for adjusting the pace of asset purchases”
- That said, jobless rolls grew in early May, which could temper expectations for an acceleration in employment growth this month
Major stock indexes rose around the globe on Thursday, with the S&P 500 climbing more than 1 per cent.
The benchmark index was led higher by sharp gains in technology shares, while U.S. Treasury yields fell after a weaker-than-expected U.S. business activity reading.
The S&P 500 technology index ended up 1.9 per cent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 188.11 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 34,084.15, the S&P 500 gained 43.44 points, or 1.06 per cent, to 4159.12 and the Nasdaq Composite added 236.00 points, or 1.77 per cent, to 13,535.74.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.27 per cent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.95 per cent.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes fell 4.3 basis points to 1.640 per cent.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said its business activity index fell to 31.5 from 50.2 in April, its highest pace in nearly half a century. The reading was short of economists’ expectations of 43.0, a Reuters poll found, and cast doubt on how fast the economy can continue to heat up.
Cryptocurrencies bounced back from their recent sharp fall, but were well off the day’s highs by afternoon New York time, as U.S. regulators signalled greater oversight for the sector.
Bitcoin was most recently up about 8 per cent at $40,035 after some of its prominent backers reiterated their support for the digital currency, having plummeted to 54 per cent below its record high, hit just over a month ago.
Smaller rival ether gained about 14 per cent to $2782. On Wednesday, it fell 22.8 per cent, its biggest daily fall since March 2020.
Investors are also still digesting minutes from the Fed’s meeting last month, which showed a number of officials thought that if the recovery holds up it might be appropriate to “begin discussing a plan for adjusting the pace of asset purchases”.
Other data on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped further below 500,000 last week.
However jobless rolls grew in early May, which could temper expectations for an acceleration in employment growth this month.
