At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index surged 164.68 points or 0.48% to 34,201. The S&P 500 added 15.05 points or 0.36% to 4,185. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 13.58 points or to 0.1% 14,052. For the week, the Dow rose 1.2%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.1%.
ECONOMIC NEWS: US Housing Starts Rebound Substantially In March -The Commerce Department released a report showing housing starts skyrocketed by 19.4 percent to an annual rate of 1.739 million in March after plunging by 11.3 percent to a revised rate of 1.457 million in February. With the bigger than expected increase, housing starts reached their highest level since hitting an annual rate of 1.802 million in June of 2006. The report showed substantial increases in both single-family housing starts and multi-family housing starts.
US Consumer Sentiment Index Rises At Slower Pace In April- US consumer sentiment index rose to 86.5 in April after soaring to 84.9 in March, the University of Michigan reported on Friday. Despite the much smaller than expected increase, the consumer sentiment index still reached its highest level since hitting 89.1 in March of 2020. The modest increase by the headline index reflected an improvement in assessments of current conditions, with the current economic conditions index climbing to 97.2 in April from 93.0 in March. Meanwhile, the report showed the index of consumer expectations for April was unchanged from the previous month at 79.7.
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