US stocks rose as upbeat economic data emboldened investors to return to the market on Thursday, a day after Wall Street suffered its worst selloff in eight months following a political turmoil involving President Donald Trump. Reports that Trump had tried to intervene in an ongoing federal investigation cast a shadow on his presidency and the future of his pro-growth agenda.
Wall Street rebounded after the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said its business activity index unexpectedly rose in May after declining for the past two months. Weekly unemployment data also pointed to strength in the labour market. "Even if we have a big, prolonged mess in Washington, it's not going to necessarily hurt the economy," said Tony Roth, chief investment officer at Wilmington Trust in Wilmington, Delaware.
"As long as the economy holds up, I think the market is going to brush off what is going on in Washington." At 12:36 pm ET (1636 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 37.17 points, or 0.18 percent, at 20,644.1, the S&P 500 was up 6.43 points, or 0.27 percent, at 2,363.46 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 31.08 points, or 0.52 percent, at 6,042.31.