The US markets ended higher on Thursday with Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching new record closing high. The strength that emerged on markets came following the release of a Labor Department report showing first-time claims for US unemployment benefits fell by much more than expected in the week ended May 1st. The report said initial jobless claims slid to 498,000, a decrease of 92,000 from the previous week's revised level of 590,000. Street had expected initial jobless claims to edge down to 540,000 from the 553,000 originally reported for the previous week. The bigger than expected decrease once again dragged jobless claims down their lowest level since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
After reporting a sharp pullback in US labor productivity in the previous quarter, the Labor Department released a report showing productivity rebounded by more than expected in the first quarter of 2021. The Labor Department said labor productivity spiked by 5.4 percent in the first quarter after tumbling by a revised 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020. Street had expected productivity to surge up by 4.3 percent compared to the 4.2 percent nosedive that had been reported for the previous quarter. The rebound in productivity, a measure of output per hour, came as output shot up by 8.4 percent compared to a 2.9 percent increase in hours worked. Besides, significant strength was visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 2.8 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Steel Index. The index once again reached its best closing level in nearly ten years. Telecom stocks also turned in a strong performance on the day, driving the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index up by 1.9 percent to a four-year closing high.
Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 318.19 points or 0.93 percent to 34,548.53, Nasdaq gained 50.42 points or 0.37 percent to 13,632.84 and S&P 500 was up by 34.03 points or 0.82 percent to 4,201.62.