US stock markets closed higher on Thursday, August 8, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 up more than 2% as a larger-than-expected drop in jobless claims eased concerns about the labor market.
Economic data showed that U.S. jobless claims fell by 17,000 to 230,000 in the week ended Aug. 3, below the expected 240,000. Wholesale inventories rose 0.2% in June, following a 0.5% increase in May.
All sectors rose in the S&P 500, led by technology and communications services. Shares of Eli Lilly jumped 9.5% after the company raised its profit outlook and reported quarterly sales of its weight-loss drug Zepbound surpassed $1 billion.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.76% to close at 39,446.49, the S&P 500 rose 2.30% to close at 5,319.31 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.87% to close at 16,660.02.
Asian Markets Today
On Friday, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.74% to close at 35,081.00, led by gains in the shipbuilding, precision machinery and banking sectors. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.25% to close at 7,777.70, led by gains in the IT, gold and A-REIT sectors. India's Nifty 50 rose 1.03% to close at 24,364.65 and the Nifty 500 rose 0.96% to close at 22,922.70. China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.27% to close at 2,862.19 and the Shenzhen CSI fell 0.34% to close at 3,331.63. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.17% to close at 17,090.23.
Eurozone 6am ET
The European STOXX 50 index rose 0.46%, Germany's DAX rose 0.50%, France's CAC rose 0.64%, and the UK's FTSE 100 rose 0.48%.
Items at 6am EST
WTI Crude Oil increased 0.10% to trade at $76.27 per barrel, Brent increased 0.04% to trade at $79.21 per barrel, Natural Gas increased 2.07% to $2.172, Gold decreased 0.01% to trade at $2,463.25, Silver decreased 0.28% to $27.530 and Copper increased 2.04% to trade at $4.0400.
US Futures 6AM ET
Dow futures rose 0.14%, S&P 500 futures rose 0.34% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.50%.
6am ET Forex
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% to 103.20, USD/JPY was down 0.02% to 147.25 and USD/AUD was up 0.17% to 1.5194.
Photo credit: Pavel Bobrovskiy (via Shutterstock)
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