Wall Street closed higher on Thursday as bank shares rose on analyst upgrades and energy stocks climbed with rebounding oil.
Shares of Goldman Sachs rose more than five percent after Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. raised the bank to "outperform." And RBC Capital Markets regarded Keycorp as a "top pick."
Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil and Chevron led energy stocks higher as oil rebounded from yesterday's losses. Oil prices hit a seven-month high of 68.81 U.S. dollars on Thursday after U.S. data showed a drop in jobless claims, boosting expectations of an economic recovery that could revive ailing energy demand.
Rally in banks and oil companies overshadowed a skid of retailers. A number of retailers reported big drops in May sales, which disappointed investors. The decline showed the U.S. consumers are still feeling the pain of a deep recession.
In economic news, the U.S. Labor Department said the tally of first-time claims for jobless benefits declined to a seasonally adjusted 621,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 625,000, nearly in line with expectations. And the total jobless benefit rolls fell by 15,000 to 6.7 million, the first drop in 20 weeks.
The Labor Department also said productivity, the amount of output per hour worked, rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.6 percent in the first quarter, double the government's estimate last month and higher than a 1.2-percent growth expected.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 74.96, or 0.9 percent, to8,750.24. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 10.70, or 1.2 percent, to 942.46, and the Nasdaq composite rose 24.10, or 1.3 percent, to 1,850.02.
Source:Xinhua
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