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Tech shares led U.S. stocks higher Thursday, despite an unexpected jump in jobless claims that resurfaced some concerns about the economy and sent bond yields lower.
The Dow Jones Industrials overcame the negatives and moved into the green 25.35 points to end the day at 34,823.35.
The 30-stock index is up 0.3% on the week and sits less than 1% from a record high, bouncing back from a 700-point-plus rout on Monday.
The S&P 500 regained 8.79 points to 4,367.48
The NASDAQ added 52.64 points to 14,684.60.
Investors jumped back into their favorite tech stocks as optimism about the sector grows ahead of big earnings reports next week for some of the largest names in the space. Salesforce is 2.5% higher while Amazon and Facebook are each 1.4% higher.
Microsoft rose 1.6% after Citi raised its price target, saying the tech giant has the potential to beat Wall Street expectations when it reports quarterly earnings next week. Citi predicted the stock will rise more than 30% over the next year. Apple rose almost 1% after Cannacord Genuity said there was "strong demand" for Apple products ahead of its earnings next week.
The overall market continues to grind higher, led sometimes by value stocks when economic optimism is high and on days such as Thursday, tech shares take over the lead.
Banks stocks, which are typically viewed as cyclical stocks whose performance is tied to the path of the economy, were down with JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo shedding more than 1%.
Still, a strong second-quarter earnings reporting season continues, with American Airlines posting a profit for the second-quarter, snapping a streak of five straight quarters with losses, thanks to the recovery in travel demand and government aid. The shares, which were up 8% this week, are down 1% on Thursday. Similarly, Southwest Airlines reported a quarterly profit, but the carrier’s stock is more than 3% lower.
Union Pacific, traded up more than 1% after reporting second-quarter net income of $1.8 billion or $2.72 per diluted share. That’s up from $1.1 billion, or $1.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
CSX jumped more than 3% after the railroad’s second-quarter profit more than doubled. AT&T shares are slightly higher after earnings and revenue topped analyst estimates.
Texas Instruments is down more than 5% after the chipmaker topped expectations for the second quarter, but warned that third quarter results could fall short of analysts’ estimates.
Intel, Twitter, Snap and Capital One will post quarterly updates after the market closes.
So far 15% of the S&P 500 has reported earnings, with 88% beating earnings estimates. Of the companies that have reported, 84% have topped revenue expectations.
Jobless claims unexpectedly rose to 419,000 last week, higher than the 350,000 economists polled by Dow Jones estimated and more than the upwardly revised 368,000 from the previous period, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys regained ground, lowering yields to 1.27% from Wednesday’s 1.30%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices jumped $1.41 to $71.71 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices regained four dollars to $1,807.40 U.S. an ounce.
