Wall St. ends up, growth stocks lead in thin trading
STORY: Wall Street's main indexes ended higher on Thursday in a light trading session that was powered by growth stocks.
The Dow closed up more than 1%, the S&P gained almost 1.8% and the Nasdaq jumped nearly 2.6%.
In a bad-news-is-good-news day for investors, U.S. unemployment data ticked up last week, signaling the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes might be starting to dent labor market strength in its bid to fight inflation.
Rod von Lipsey is Managing Director at UBS Private Wealth Management.
"Well, today we're seeing a little bit of a relaxation of worries about that heating economy, about employment that's just too strong, and worries that the Fed is going to have to continue to raise rates at a very, very high and really punishing pace for the U.S. economy. So today we're seeing a little bit of relief coming out of those jobs numbers this morning.”
All 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, with communication service and technology the biggest winners with gains of nearly 3%.
Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon, whose shares have been battered in the past few sessions, each gained more than 2.5%.
And Tesla’s shares – which have fallen nearly 70% this year – extended yesterday’s gains after Chief Executive Elon Musk told his staff they should not be [quote], "bothered by stock market craziness."
