Wall Street stocks were in the green shortly after the bell on Thursday as Congress looked to be nearing an agreement to raise the US debt limit and avoid a government default and jobless claims surprised to the downside.
As of 1525 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.56% at 34,952.44, while the S&P 500 was 1.50% firmer at 4,429.08 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.63% stronger at 14,738.55.
The Dow Jones opened 535.45 points higher on Thursday, extending gains recorded in the previous session.
Major indices got a boost on news that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had offered a short-term suspension proposal to Senate Democrats that will raise the debt ceiling by a certain amount and allow the government to continue operating until December.
Tech stocks like Twitter, Nvidia and AMD were trading higher at the open, while reopening plays GM and Southwest were also in the green and Costco shares advanced after posting better-than-expected sales for September.
Also boosting sentiment, weekly jobless claims in the US surprised to the downside last week, according to the Department of Labor, with initial unemployment claims for the week ended 2 October decreasing by 38,000 to 326,000. Economists had been expecting a rise to 370,000.
The four-week moving average increased by 3,500 to 344,000, while secondary claims dropped by 97,000 to 2.71m.
Elsewhere on the macro front, Challenger, Gray & Christmas revealed that US-based employers had cut 17,895 jobs in September, a 14% jump from August’s 24-year low.
Still to come, consumer credit change figures for August will follow at 2000 BST.
