As labor and services data showed a slowdown in the pace of the economic damage wrought by the COVID-19 shutdowns, U.S. stocks surged, adding to their gains on Wednesday, a day after major equity benchmarks closed at their highest levels since early March.
Mark DeCambre and Sunny Oh for MarketWatch:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 392 points, or 1.5%, to 26,136, its highest since early March. The S&P 500 rose 32 points, or 1%, to 3,112. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 47 points, or 0.5%, to 9,656, less than 2% away from its all-time closing high of 9817.18.
Markets have climbed a virtual wall of worry to head higher over the past several sessions, shrugging off social strife and demonstrations in major cities, testiness between the U.S. and China and the economic carnage wrought by a viral pandemic.
Stocks rose after data from Automatic Data Processing showed private-sector employers shed 2.76 million jobs in May, following a decrease of 20.2 million in April. Last month’s fall was much less than the 8.66 million job losses expected from economists polled by Econoday… Weekly data showed that the Fed’s balance sheet rose to $7.1 trillion as of last Wednesday, up from $7.04 trillion over the prior period. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has put trillions of dollars into the hands of small businesses and workers to help stem the hardship of store closures.
Apple Inc. shares were flat following social media posts that claimed the company is disabling and tracking looted iPhones.
MacDailyNews Take: The good thing about hitting rock bottom is there’s only one way left to go: Up!
…and the talk of negative interest rates continues during the “good news” noted by Mr. DeCambre.
He’s juggling sweet cakes and sharp knives. I’m happy; AAPL is up, but….