U.S. Stocks Close On Strong Note Ahead Of Jackson Hole Symposium

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks closed on a strong note on Thursday, extending gains from the previous session, with several counters seeing sustained buying ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech in the Jackson Hole Symposium.

Powell is widely expected to reiterate the central bank's hawkish stance, given the expectations that inflation in the U.S. will be persistent and it will take time to contain it.

Investors digested a slew of earnings updates and economic data.

The major averages all ended with impressive gains. The Dow surged 322.55 points or 0.98 percent to 33,291.78. The S&P 500 climbed 38.55 points or 1.41 percent to 4,199.12, while the Nasdaq ended stronger by 207.74 points or 1.67 percent at 12,639.27.

NVIDIA Corporation shares gained more than 4 percent, recovering after early weakness, despite the company reporting weaker-than-expected quaterly results, and lowering its earnings guidance.

Boeing surged more than 3.5 percent. Caterpillar, JP Morgan Chase, Intel, American Express, Visa, Apple and Nike gained 1.5 to 3 percent.

Honeywell International, Goldman Sachs, 3M, Microsoft and J&J also closed notably higher.

Tescla shed about 2 percent as a 3 for 1 stock split announced by the company came into effect.

Salesforce.com shares drifted down more than 3 percent on weak full-year guidance.

Shares of Snowflake Inc. soared nearly 23 percent, buoyed by stronger-than-expected quarter earnings.

Dollar Tree Inc. shares ended more than 10 percent down after the company narrowed its full-year sales outlook to the range of $27.85 billion-$28.10 billion from $27.76 billion-$28.14 billion provided earlier. The company has slashed its earnings per share outlook for the year to $7.10-$7.40 from the previous guidance of $7.80-$8.20.

On the economic front, Data from the Labor Department showed the U.S. economy contracted an annualized 0.6 percent in the second quarter, following a 1.6 percent drop a quarter earlier.

Personal consumption expenditure increased 1.5 percent in the second quarter, after rising 1.8 percent in the previous quarter. Year-on-year, personal consumption expenditure rose 1.9 percent in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, data from the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims dropped to 243,000 in the week ended August 20th, from a revised 245,000 claims a week earlier.

In overseas trading, Asian stocks advanced on Thursday as investors looked forward to Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech on Friday at the central banking conference in Jackson Hole for further cues on the monetary policy outlook.

The markets in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Australia closed notably higher, while the New Zealand market ended marginally down.

European stocks closed broadly higher on Thursday, with investors reacting positively to some fairly strong economic data from the region.

The mood, however, remained cautious ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday for clues about the central bank's economic outlook and interest rates.

The European Central Bank's minutes of the latest policy meeting showed the bank is set to continue with interest rate hikes to combat soaring inflation.

The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 0.3 percent. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.11 percent, Germany's DAX surged 0.39 percent, and Switzerland's SMI climbed 0.46 percent, while France's CAC 40 edged down 0.08 percent.