US Stocks Rebound On Upbeat Labor Data

All benchmark US indices closed higher on Thursday, May 20, halting a downward trend witnessed in the past three days, as stocks bounced back sharply amid positive labor data.

The S&P 500 was up 1.06% to 4,159.12. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.55% to 34,084.15. The NASDAQ Composite Index climbed 1.77% to 13,535.74. The small-cap Russell 2000 gained 0.64% to 2,207.76.

Markets were lifted by the latest labor data, which showed the number of jobless benefits claims through the regular state programs dropped to a new low of 444,000 last week. It was the sharpest fall since mid-March 2020.

Many states are also mulling to withdraw the federal benefits as labor shortages raised questions about whether people deliberately avoided work because of the government aid. Over 20 states have favoured withdrawing federal grants to workers that are typically not eligible for benefits.

Investors took their cues from several positive news in the market. Virgin Galactic (SPCE) announced that it would perform another test flight of its spacecraft SpaceShipTwo Unity on Saturday. The stock jumped around 25% in the pre-market trading.

The Swedish food company Oatly Group (OTLY) made its US stock market debut on Thursday. The stock jumped more than 22% in the afternoon session on NASDAQ. The company had raised US$1.4 billion at an offering price of US$17 per share for 84.4 million stocks on Wednesday.

In other news, Apollo Global’s co-founder Joshua Harris to step down from his role after changes in the management. However, he will retain his position as a board member, it said.

Also Read: Oatly Stock Up 22.97% In Market Debut, Raises US$1.4 billion

Technology stocks, which remained muted for the past three days, recovered on Thursday as stocks saw rapid advances. Tesla was up 4%, Facebook rose 1.6%, and Microsoft added 1.38%. The stock of cloud-based payment processing company, Lightspeed POS, jumped more than 15%. Ford Motor and Cisco Systems gained 2.64% and 0.87%, respectively, and Alibaba was up 2.02%.

The stock of luxury apparel maker Ralph Lauren Corp (RL) fell 7% after it announced its fourth-quarter results. Its revenues were marginally up 1% to US$1.29 billion.

All major segments, such as technology, real estate, healthcare, consumer cyclicals, utilities, consumer non-cyclicals, industrials, basic materials, energy, and financials, saw gains in Thursday’s session.          

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Also Read: Why Iovance (NASDAQ:IOVA) Stock Surged Today?

Top Gainers

Top performers on S&P 500 included Enphase Energy Inc (8.53%), Hormel Foods Corp (7.37%), ViacomCBS Inc (4.61%), and Maxim Integrated Products Inc (4.55%). On NASDAQ, top performers were Big Rock Partners Acquisition Corp (88.01%), Urban One Inc (59.07%), Newegg Commerce Inc (43.60%), and Sensei Biotherapeutics Inc (30.11%). On Dow Jones, Apple Inc (2.10%), Boeing Co (1.44%), Microsoft Corp (1.38%), and Amgen Inc (1.33%) were the leaders.

Top Losers

Top laggards on S&P 500 included Ralph Lauren Corp (-7.01%), Discovery Inc (-4.06%), Gap Inc (-4.01%), and L Brands Inc (-3.91%). On NASDAQ, Black Diamond Therapeutics Inc (-37.34%), Jiuzi Holdings Inc (-25.43%), Onconova Therapeutics Inc (-21.08%), and E-Home Household Service Holdings Ltd (-19.34%) were the losers. On Dow Jones, Caterpillar Inc (-0.79%), Dow Inc (-0.42%), Verizon Communications Inc (-0.23%), and UnitedHealth Group Inc (-0.21%) were the laggards.

Volume Movers

Top volume movers were Ford Motor Co (17.82M), Apple Inc (16.78M), AT&T Inc (15.65M), Cisco Systems Inc (11.51M), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (10.11M), Intel Corp (9.43M), General Electric Co (8.68M), Bank of America Corp (8.42M), Onconova Therapeutics Inc (11.99M), Sundial Growers Inc (11.59M), Intel Corp (9.43M), Urban One Inc (9.41M), Advaxis Inc (7.54M).                    

Futures & Commodities

Gold futures were down 0.22% to US$1,877.35 per ounce. Silver decreased 0.62% to US$27.852 per ounce, while copper was down 1.03% to US$4.5293.

Brent oil futures increased slightly by 0.05% to US$64.96 per barrel and WTI crude declined 2.49% to US$61.77.

Bond Market

The 30-year Treasury bond yields were down 2.27% to 2.333 while the 10-year bond yields decreased 3.24% to 1.628.

US Dollar Futures Index was down 0.49% to US$89.745.