The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 131.02 points, or 0.38 percent, to 34,633.53. The S&P 500 increased 22.44 points, or 0.52 percent, to 4,319.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 18.42 points, or 0.13 percent, to 14,522.38.
Ten of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with energy up 1.72 percent, leading the gainers. Consumer staple slipped 0.28 percent, the lone declining group.
U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded lower with all the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on a downbeat note.
The above market reactions came as data showed initial filings for unemployment insurance in the United States fell to a fresh pandemic-era low last week.
U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure lay-offs, registered 364,000 in the week ending June 26, a decrease of 51,000 from the prior week's revised level, the Department of Labor reported Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones had expected initial claims for unemployment totaled 390,000 last week.
The numbers came one day before the highly-anticipated June U.S. employment situation report to be released by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which will include employment data from both the private sector and the government.
On another data front, U.S. Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) slipped to 60.6 percent in June from the May reading of 61.2 percent, according to the Institute for Supply Management. That was slightly below the Wall Street forecast.
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