Wall Street recovers Wednesday's heavy losses
Major equity indices in the United States ended the day higher as investors reevaluated yesterday's FOMC meeting minutes, which suggested that the Fed is poised to tighten policy further via reducing the balance sheet later this year.
Regarding yesterday's sharp fall, “People in hindsight decided the market over-reacted,” Stephen Massocca, Senior Vice President at Wedbush Securities, told Reuters. He further added that investors appeared to react positively to news that Republicans had pushed through a rule change that would likely pave the way for the confirmation of President Donald Trump's conservative nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Forex today: subdued, all eyes on Trump/Xi summit and nonfarms Friday
However, today's bullish momentum witnessed in stocks lost some strength towards the end of the day as investors took a step back as the White House is said to be considering a military response to this week's chemical weapons attack, which is believed to have killed dozens of people.
In the data front, U.S. weekly jobless claims recorded the largest weekly drop in almost two years at 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 234,000 for the week ended March 31.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 14.8 points, or 0.07%, to 20,662.95, the S&P 500 was up 7 points, or 0.3%, at 2,355.50 and the Nasdaq Composite added 15.30 points, or 0.26%, to 5,879.83.
Headlines from the U.S. session
- Nonfarm payrolls: what about earnings? - Nomura
- China President Xi Jinping’s first face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump - UOB
- White House: We feel very good about discussions on Obamacare - Reuters
- Pentagon in detailed discussions with White House about military options on Syria - RTRS
- Fitch: Fed Funds rate to reach 3.5% to 4% by 2020