The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 152.84 points, or 0.54 percent, to 28,363.66. The S&P 500 was up 17.93 points, or 0.52 percent, to 3,453.49. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 21.31 points, or 0.19 percent, to 11,506.01.
Eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors advanced, with energy closing up 4.16 percent, outpacing the rest. Real estate slipped 0.77 percent, the worst-performing group.
U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded mostly lower, with eight of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on a downbeat note.
Investors awaited news on U.S. stimulus as talks over a new COVID-19 relief package drag on. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin continued to paint a picture of hope.
"If a deal has any chance of getting passed before the election, it will likely need to get done by week's end so it can get voted on by the Senate," Kevin Matras, analyst at Zacks Investment Research, said in a note Thursday.
On the data front, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, came in at 787,000 in the week ending Oct. 17, a decrease of 55,000 from the previous week's revised level, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected first-time applicants for state unemployment insurance to have totaled 875,000.
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