US close: Stocks continue to claw back from September slide

Stocks closed in positive territory stateside on Thursday, as Wall Street attempted to reclaim some of September's losses.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.48% at 34,764.82, the S&P 500 added 1.21% to 4,448.98, and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.04% firmer at 15,052.24.

The Dow closed 506.5 points higher on Thursday, extending gains recorded in the previous session after the Federal Reserve indicated it was anticipating several interest rate hikes in the next three years in its latest policy decision.

The Federal Open Market Committee's decision to stand pat on current near-zero interest rate targets was still in focus at the open.

Overnight, the central bank said it could raise interest rates between six and seven times between now and the end of 2024, and added that it had progressed discussions on reducing its asset purchase programme.

On the macro front, initial claims came to 351,000 last week, according to the Labor Department, up from the previous week's upwardly revised total of 335,000 and significantly ahead of estimates for a reading of 320,000.

Continuing claims also grew, jumping by 181,000 to over 2.84m.

On the other hand, the four-week moving average for initial claims dropped to 335,750, a decrease of 750 week-on-week, while the four-week moving average for continuing claims fell by 15,750 to just over 2.8m.

Elsewhere, the Chicago Fed's August national activity index declined to 0.29 in August from 0.75 in July, while the Conference Board's leading index increased by 0.9% to 117.1, following a 0.8% increase in July.

Lastly, a flash reading of IHS Markit's September manufacturing PMI revealed that the manufacturing sector continued to expand in September, but at a slower pace than in August, as the PMI declined to 60.5 from 61.1, slightly weaker than market expectations for a print of 62.5.

In the corporate space, Accenture was up 2.49% after it said first-quarter revenues were expected to beat analyst expectations amid stronger demand for its cloud and security services, while Salesforce was 7.21% higher after raising full-year revenue guidance.

Membership retailer Costco Wholesale closed up 0.1%, and sports fashion giant Nike was 1.36% firmer, ahead of both reporting earnings after the close.

Dow Jones - Risers

Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $277.86 7.21%
American Express Co. (AXP) $173.36 3.50%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $161.18 3.38%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $196.62 2.75%
Visa Inc. (V) $228.31 2.50%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $100.06 2.48%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $56.69 2.11%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $57.51 2.01%
Boeing Co. (BA) $221.10 1.90%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $391.76 1.66%