US close: Stocks finish higher after better-than-expected data

dl wall street st new york city nyc nyse stock exchange ny dow jones nasdaq sp finance us usa united states of america — Wall StreetSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street's main market gauges reversed earlier losses to close higher on Thursday, as investors digested a fresh batch of better-than-expected economic indicators.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.06% at 33,999.04, as the S&P 500 added 0.23% to 4,283.74, and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 0.21% at 12,965.34.

“The dollar index has broken to a three-week high today, with fears of a potential topping out in equities tallying up with signs of US outperformance over Europe,” said IG senior market analyst Joshua Mahony.

“First inflation, then retail sales, and now we have seen improvement in the jobless claims and the Philly Fed manufacturing survey for the US.

“While a recession is widely anticipated, there are signs that European nations will suffer greater consequences as energy prices signal the potential for a greater contraction if the breakdown in relations with Russia remains in place.”

Data published earlier revealed an unexpected dip of 2,000 in the number of initial weekly jobless claims to 252,000, against consensus forecasts for 260,000.

The key Philly Fed regional manufacturing index meanwhile jumped back to a level of 6.2 for August, following a print of -12.3 in the prior month, and well ahead of the -5.0 pencilled in by analysts.

Existing home sales, on the other hand, did fall by 5.9% month-on-month in July, taking the annualised rate to 4.81m, below expectations for 4.9m, according to the National Association of Realtors.

In equities, department store operator Kohl’s fell 7.72% after missing expectations on second-quarter profit, while Bed Bath & Beyond tumbled 19.63% after GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen revealed plans to sell his holding just a few months after investing.

On the upside, Wolfspeed rocketed 31.186% after beating quarterly revenue expectations, taking the rest of the American semiconductor sector higher with it.

Applied Materials was up 2.14%, Broadcom added 3.69%, Micron Technology was ahead 2.21%, and Nvidia closed 2.39% higher.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com. Additional reporting by Alexander Bueso.

Dow Jones - Risers

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $49.37 5.81%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $36.20 1.17%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $55.97 1.01%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $139.00 0.93%
Boeing Co. (BA) $168.69 0.89%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $159.02 0.84%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $197.32 0.72%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $65.22 0.52%
American Express Co. (AXP) $164.62 0.46%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $91.40 0.40%