S&P 500 drifts close to record heights after jobless report
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting close to its highest-ever levels on Thursday, and the market remains within a breath of erasing the last of its pandemic losses.
The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in midday trading after earlier flipping between small gains and losses. It's within 0.2% of its record close, which was set in February before investors appreciated how much devastation the new coronavirus would cause for the global economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 65 points, or 0.2%, at 27,911, as of 11:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.8%.
Treasury yields were also holding relatively steady after a report showed that fewer than 1 million U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week. It’s still an incredibly high number, but it’s the first time the tally has dropped below that threshold since March, before widespread business lockdowns caused a tsunami of layoffs.
Economists said the drop in jobless claims, which was better than the market was expecting, is an encouraging step. But they also cautioned that it could be more of an outlier than a trend, and more data reports are needed to confirm it.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury was sitting at 0.67% in midday trading. It was at 0.57% just on Monday.
Wall Street has erased almost all of the nearly 34% drop the S&P 500 suffered from late February into March, even though the economy is still hobbled despite some recent improvements.
Massive efforts to support the economy by the Federal Reserve and U.S. government helped trigger the rally, and investors are now waiting for Congress and the White House to deliver another round of aid after unemployment benefits and other measures in the last tranche expired.
Democrats and Republicans remain far apart,...