U.S. stocks rallied Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S P 500 setting their new intraday and closing highs, as investors digested a batch of positive economic reports.
The Dow gained 134.29 points, or 0.73 percent, to 18,506.41. The S P 500 added 11.32 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,163.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 28.33 points, or 0.57 percent, to 5,034.06.
In the week ending on July 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 254,000, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised level and below market consensus of 265,000, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday. The four-week moving average was 259,000, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 264,750.
In a separate report, the department said that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand increased 0.5 percent in June, seasonally adjusted, beating market estimates. On an unadjusted basis, the final demand index advanced 0.3 percent for the 12 months ended in June, the largest 12-month increase since moving up 0.9 percent in December 2014.
"Wholesale prices, which fell and rose with energy prices over the last two years, are beginning to stabilize along with energy costs," said Sophia Kearney-Lederman, an economic analyst at FTN Financial.
Meanwhile, a rebound in oil prices also provided some upward jolts to the stock market. Oil prices jumped Thursday, with both U. S. oil and Brent crude rising about 2 percent, as traders covered short positions following previous day's plunge.
In corporate news, shares of JPMorgan Chase Co. gained 1.52 percent to 64.12 U.S. dollars apiece Thursday, after the U.S. bank posted better- than-expected quarterly results.
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