At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced 59.87 points, or 0.2%, to 29,883.79. The S&P 500 index added 6.56 points, or 0.18%, to 3,669.01. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 5.74 points, or 0.05%, to 12,349.37.
Weekly jobless claims, seen as a proxy for layoffs, dropped to 712,000 for the week ended Nov. 28, from 787,000 in the previous week. That was lower than market had expected, reflecting a moderate improvement in the pace of recovery of the labor market. The monthly jobs report will be released on Friday.
Challenges in Pfizer Inc's supply chain for the raw materials used in its COVID-19 vaccine played a role in its decision to slash its 2020 production target. A company spokeswoman said the scale-up of the raw material supply chain took longer than expected. She also cited later-than-expected results from Pfizer's clinical trial as a reason for the smaller number of doses expected to be produced by the end of 2020.
Shares of airlines, cruise operators and small companies -- sectors that have benefited from enthusiasm about a vaccine -- outperformed the broader market on Thursday. Shares in Boeing rose 6% after budget airliner Ryan Air ordered an additional 75 of its 737 MAX jets.
Shares in Tesla rose 4.3% on a broker upgrade. Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock's rating to buy and raised the price target to $780.
ECONOMIC NEWS: US ISM Service Sector PMI Pulls Back In November- US services PMI edged down to 55.9 in November after dipping to 56.6 in October, although a reading above 50 still indicates growth, according to a report released by the Institute for Supply Management on Thursday. The modest decrease by the headline index came as the business activity index slid to 58.0 in November from 61.2 in October. The new orders index also fell to 57.2 from 58.8. On the other hand, the ISM said the employment index rose to 51.5 in November from 50.1 in October, indicating the third consecutive month of job growth in the service sector.
US Initial Jobless Claims Drop Sharply To 712,000- Initial jobless claims in the US dropped to 712,000, a decrease of 75,000 from the previous week's revised level of 787,000, a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed. The report said the less volatile four-week moving average also slipped to 739,500, a decrease of 11,250 from the previous week's revised average of 750,750. Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also tumbled by 569,000 to 5.520 million in the week ended November 21st. The four-week moving average of continuing claims slid to 6,194,250, a decrease of 425,500 from the previous week's revised average of 6,619,750.
Among Indian ADR, HDFC Bank declined 2.44% to $68.03, WNS Holdings shed 1.68% to $68.54, ICICI Bank declined 0.83% to $13.16, Azure Power Global fell 3.3% to $34.32. Wipro sank 1.86% to $5.27, and INFOSYS dropped 1.1% to $15.24, while Dr Reddys Labs added 0.58% to $65.87, Tata Motors added 0.16% to $12.66, and Vedanta rose 1.91% to $6.95.
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