WALL STREET GAINS; NASDAQ CLOSES HIGHER THAN 11,000

Shares on Wall Street shrugged off a sluggish start and closed higher on Thursday, with the Nasdaq ending the session above 11,000 for the first time as investors hoped for a new fiscal stimulus package, Chuck Mikolajczak and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss reported for Reuters on the night of August 6, 2020.

Tech and tech-related heavyweight stocks such as Apple, which rose 3.49% and Facebook, up 6.49% helped pace gains on the indexes. The tech-heavy Nasdaq clinched a new record high in early trading, and closed above the 11,000-mark for the first time after initially climbing above it on Wednesday. 

The benchmark S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow were about 1% and 7% away from their own peaks scaled in February. “Markets have been incredibly resilient, there is a big fear of missing out and it is the old stalwarts, the technology leaders that keep driving the market higher,” said Sal Bruno, chief investment officer at IndexIQ in New York. 

Economic data released on Thursday painted a mixed picture as US Labor Department numbers showed a first fall in jobless claims in three weeks, although a separate report showed a 54% surge in job cuts announced by employers in July. The data comes ahead of the government payrolls report on Friday.