NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Thursday after a jump in weekly jobless claims soothed worries about sharper interest rate hikes ahead of a key jobs report that could determine the Federal Reserve’s future monetary policy.
Jobless claims increased by the most in five months last week, and the reading followed recent evidence of a tight labor market, which, along with hawkish comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, had exacerbated concerns that the central bank could keep interest rate higher for longer.
Bets of a 50 basis point rate hike at the Fed’s March meeting slipped to 68% after the report from 72%, with the terminal rate now seen at 5.63% in September compared with 5.67% prior to the data..
At 11:49 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 37.70 points, or 0.11%, at 32,836.10, the S&P 500 was up 6.95 points, or 0.17%, at 3,998.96, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 39.86 points, or 0.34%, at 11,615.86 US-listed shares of JD.com Inc dropped 10.6% after the Chinese e-commerce firm missed fourth-quarter revenue estimates. The S&P index recorded five new 52-week highs and 14 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 47 new highs and 149 new lows.
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