The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 188.11 points, or 0.55 percent, to 34,084.15. The S&P 500 rose 43.44 points, or 1.06 percent, to 4,159.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 236.00 points, or 1.77 percent, to 13,535.74.
Ten of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with technology and communication services up 1.87 percent and 1.67 percent, respectively, leading the gainers. Energy lost 0.12 percent, the lone declining group.
Shares of major U.S. tech giants, the so-called FAANG group of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet, all closed higher.
U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded higher with all the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on an upbeat note.
On the economic front, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, decreased by 34,000 to 444,000 in the week ending May 15, a fresh pandemic-era low, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting 452,000 new claims.
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