U.S. Stocks Ride Upward Momentum To New Record Highs

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved modestly higher during trading on Thursday following the lackluster performance seen in the previous session. With the upward move, the major averages once again ended the session at new record closing highs.

The major averages finished the session at their best levels of the day. The Dow climbed 137.68 points or 0.5 percent to 28,376.96, the Nasdaq advanced 59.48 points or 0.7 percent to 8,887.22 and the S&P 500 rose 14.23 points or 0.5 percent to 3,205.37.

The strength on Wall Street partly reflected recent upward momentum, with stocks continuing to chug higher even as traders look for the next major catalyst.

Trading activity remained relatively subdued, however, with some traders waiting on the sidelines until they see the details of the phase one trade deal announced by U.S. and China officials last week.

News the House officially voted to impeach President Donald Trump also led to some caution on Wall Street, although the pro-business president is very unlikely to be removed from office.

The vote by House Democrats was historic but also widely expected, and Trump is almost sure to be acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Meanwhile, trader largely shrugged off a disappointing batch of U.S. economic news, as the data comes from before the U.S. and China agreed on a phase one trade deal.

The Labor Department released a report before the start of trading showing initial jobless claims pulled back by much less than expected in the week ended December 14th.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 234,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 252,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to drop to 225,000.

The smaller than expected pullback came after jobless claims reached their highest level since September of 2017 in the previous week.

A separate report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed Philadelphia-area manufacturing activity was nearly flat in the month of December.

The Philly Fed said its diffusion index for current general activity tumbled to 0.3 in December from 10.4 in November, with zero serving as the demarcation point between contraction and expansion. Economists had expected the index to dip to 8.0.

With the much bigger than expected decrease, the Philly Fed Index slumped to its lowest reading in six months.

The National Association of Realtors also released a report showing a much bigger than expected pullback in U.S. existing home sales in the month of November.

NAR said existing home sales tumbled by 1.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.35 million in November after jumping by 1.5 percent to a revised 5.44 million in October.

Economists had expected existing home sales to dip by 0.4 percent to a rate of 5.44 million from the 5.46 million originally reported for the previous month.

Sector News

Energy stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index and the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index climbing by 1.8 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.

The strength in the sector came amid an increase by the price of crude oil, as crude for January delivery rose $0.29 to a three-month closing high of $61.22 a barrel.

Notable strength was also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 1.2 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.

Telecom and commercial real estate stocks also saw some strength on the day, while housing stocks moved to the downside following the disappointing existing home sales data.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in another mixed performance during trading on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index dipped by 0.3 percent, while South Korea's Kospi inched up by 0.1 percent.

The major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the German DAX Index edged down by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index crept up by 0.2 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries turned higher over the course of the session after seeing initial weakness. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by 1.6 basis points to 1.908 percent.

Looking Ahead

A revised reading on third quarter GDP is scheduled to be released on Friday along with reports on personal income and spending and consumer sentiment.