At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced 196.67 points, or 0.554%, to 35,950.56. The S&P500 index added 29.23 points, or 0.62%, to 4,725.79. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index grew 131.48 points, or 0.85%, to 15,653.37. For the holiday-shortened week, the Nasdaq spiked by 3.2%, the S&P 500 surged up by 2.3% and the Dow jumped by 1.7%.
Total shares volume turnover on U.S. exchanges stood at 7.12 billion shares, down from yesterday's 7.82 billion shares. Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE exchange by 2288 to 1071 and 132 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 3232 issues advanced, 1447 issues declined, and 219 issues unchanged.
Total 9 of 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes advanced, with top performing issues were consumer discretionary (up 1.24%), industrials (up 1.16%), materials (up 1%), and communication services (up 0.7%).
ECONOMIC DATA: US Durable Goods Orders Rise 2.5% In November- US durable goods orders surged up by 2.5% in November following a revised 0.1% uptick in October, a report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday showed. The bigger than expected increase in durable goods orders was largely due to a substantial rebound in orders for transportation equipment, which shot up by 6.5% in November after dipping by 0.3% in October and slumping by 2.8% in September.
US New Home Sales Spike 12.4% In November- US new home sales soared by 12.4% to an annual rate of 744,000 in November, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday. However, the sharp increase came from a downwardly revised rate of 662,000 in October, which was down 8.4% from the revised September rate of 723,000. The downwardly revised rate in October reflected the lowest level of new home sales since the rate of 582,000 in April of 2020.
US Consumer Sentiment Improves In December- US consumer sentiment index for December was upwardly revised to 70.6 from the preliminary reading of 70.4, revised data released by the University of Michigan on Thursday showed. The report also showed the index of consumer expectations climbed to 68.3 in December from 63.5 in November, while current economic conditions index rose to 74.2 from 73.6.
US Weekly Jobless Claims Stay Flat- US first-time claims for unemployment benefits came in flat in the week ended December 18th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims were unchanged from the previous week's revised level of 205,000. Jobless claims held steady after the previous week saw claims edge up off the more than 50-year low of 188,000 set in the week ended December 4th.
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Among Indian ADR, WNS Holdings added 0.9% to $86.25, INFOSYS added 0.8% to $24.73, Dr Reddys Labs added 1.1% to $62.79, and Wipro rose 0.4% to $9.45. HDFC Bank fell 0.4% to $63.25, ICICI Bank fell 0.2% to $19.33, Tata Motors fell 0.9% to $31.21, and Azure Power Global fell 3% to $18.57.
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