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It was a week that ended as well as it started. On Wall Street, stock indexes surged strongly on Thursday, helped by fresh data on the labor market, which eased investor concerns about its accelerating weakness and the potential for a U.S. recession.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 683 points, or 1.76%, to 39,446. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 rose 2.3% to 5,319, posting its biggest one-day percentage gain since November 2022. Data from the U.S. Department of Labor showed that initial jobless claims reached 233,000 last week, down 17,000 from the previous week and below analysts’ expectations.
Wall Street investors breathed a sigh of relief after the market pulled back sharply at the start of the week amid concerns about an accelerating slowdown in demand for workers and a possible recession in the U.S. As a result, the Volatility Index (VIX), a measure of fear among Wall Street investors, fell 14.5% on Thursday.
“What we see in these data is that the labor market remains sound and that recession fears are probably a little overblown right now,” said Paul Nolte, market strategist at Murphy & Sylvest.
The good news from Wall Street was accompanied by news from the other side of the Pacific – Asian stocks rebounded after a very volatile week, with Japanese stocks recovering all of their losses since Monday.
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