Stocks advanced on Thursday, with the Dow and the S&P 500 climbing to fresh all-time intraday highs in late morning trade after data showed jobless claims dropped more than expected, Reuters reported.
Nevertheless, technology stocks were the day’s underperformers, with tech blue chips such as Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard sharply lower after an industry report that showed shipments of personal computers had fallen significantly in the first quarter. Microsoft was also hit after Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the stock to “sell” from “neutral.
“It’s not a good day for technology stocks, but overall, we are in a strong market,” said Joe Bell, senior equity analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research, in Cincinnati.
“It’s encouraging to see how the market starts off weak on a bit of natural profit taking, and then market participants instantly bid the market higher.”
Boeing Co shares jumped 1.7 per cent to $89.29, after hitting a 52-week high at $89.45, and ranked as the Dow’s biggest gainer.
Providing relief to the market that was rattled last Friday by a much weaker-than-expected non-farm payrolls report, Thursday’s data showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell much more than expected last week.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 56.02 points, or 0.38 percent, at 14,859.06. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 5.85 points, or 0.37 per cent, at 1,593.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up just 0.50 of a point, or 0.02 per cent, at 3,297.75.
The Dow reached a record intraday high at around 11:21 a.m., rising as high as 14,882.53. The S&P 500 quickly followed suit, touching an all-time intraday high of 1,597.35 at 11:27am.
On Wednesday, both the Dow and the S&P 500 had climbed more than one per cent to close at new record highs after three straight days of gains.
A leading tech tracking firm said personal computer sales plunged 14 percent in the first three months of the year, the biggest decline in two decades of keeping records, in a report released after Wednesday’s closing bell.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) fell 6.1 per cent to $20.96, Microsoft (MSFT.O) shed 4.9 per cent to $28.79 and Intel (INTC.O) lost 2.3 per cent to $21.75 to rank among the biggest drags on both the Dow and the S&P 500. The S&P information technology sector index .SPLRCT slipped 0.5 per cent.
Shares of Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc (ACAD.O) surged 52 per cent to $12.12, off a 52-week high at $12.24, after the drug maker said data from an initial late-stage trial would be sufficient to file for approval for its experimental antipsychotic drug for Parkinson’s disease patients. Acadia said it would not need to conduct an additional trial as it had planned earlier.
Other economic data showed import prices slipped 0.5 per cent last month, in line with expectations, while export prices fell 0.4 per cent, signalling inflation pressure remained tepid and would allow the Federal Reserve to continue with its current monetary policy.