US close: Stocks resume December rally

dl nyse new york stock exchange new york city nyc wall street wall st nasdaq markets trading finance unsplash — Sharecast / David Vives via Unsplash

Wall Street stocks resumed their recent rally on Thursday after registering some heavy losses in the previous session.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.87% at 37,404.35, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.03% to 4,746.75 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.26% firmer at 14,963.87.

The Dow closed 322.35 points higher on Thursday, reclaiming some of the previous session's losses.

Yesterday's losses came as investors indulged in a little bit of profit-taking, leading to the worst single-day drop since October and snapping the blue-chip's winning streak at nine-straight sessions.

In focus on Thursday, Treasury yields continued to fall from recent highs, with the benchmark ten-year note hitting its lowest level since July before regaining some ground to sit at 3.885%.

On the macro front, the US economy grew less than previously estimated in the third quarter, according to figures released on Thursday by the Commerce Department. GDP for July to September was revised down to 4.9% from 5.2% in the second estimate. Economists were expecting growth to be unrevised.

Elsewhere, Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at an accelerated clip in the week ended 16 December but remained near the previous week's two-month low. According to the Labor Department, initial jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 205,000 last week, well below consensus expectations of 215,000 and underscoring relative tightness in the US labour market. Continuing claims fell by 1,000 in the first week of December to 1.86m, firmly below market expectations of 1,88m, while the four-week moving average, which aims to strip out week-to-week volatility, fell by 1,500 to 212,000.

On another note, the downturn in manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region worsened more than expected in December, according to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve. The Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey found that the current general activity index dropped to -10.5 this month, from -5.9 in November. This was the index's 17th reading below zero in the past 19 months and significantly below the -3.0 level expected by economists.

Finally, the Kansas Federal Reserve's manufacturing activity index slipped from November's reading of -3 to -4 in December as a decline in activity for durable goods offset an increase in activity for non-durable goods, specifically food and beverage and plastics manufacturing,

In the corporate space, Micron shares traded higher after beating Wall Street expectations with its first-quarter numbers, while Salesforce got a boost from an upgrade by analysts at Morgan Stanley.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Intel Corp. (INTC) $47.09 2.91%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $26.10 2.76%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $267.28 2.70%
American Express Co. (AXP) $185.10 2.46%
3M Co. (MMM) $105.53 1.79%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $279.46 1.56%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $154.97 1.11%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $106.44 1.03%
Visa Inc. (V) $259.65 0.99%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $185.57 0.94%