US stocks ended higher as President Joe Biden held his first presidential conference and as weekly jobless claims slumped to a one-year low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% to 32,619.48, the S&P 500 was also up 0.5% to 3,909.52 and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.1% higher to 12,977.68. Financials and industrials led the gainers, with the communication services and technology sectors the only decliners on Thursday. The US 10-year yield rose 1.62%. At a news conference held at the White House, US President Joe Biden on Thursday pledged 200 million COVID-19 vaccinations within the first 100 days in office, after the administration achieved its initial goal of 100 million shots on Friday, which was the 59th day of Biden’s term, according to CNBC. Initial jobless claims was 684,000 for the week ended March 20, a drop of 97,000 from the previous week’s filings. Analysts polled by Econoday expected 730,000 claims. The previous week was revised up by 11,000 to 781,000. The four-week moving average was 736,000, down 13,000 from the prior week’s revised rate. The US 10-year yield rose by 2.6 basis points to $1.64%, after declining earlier in the session. Fed could begin tapering its asset purchase program by rolling back Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities it has bought when the economy starts to make “substantial further progress toward our goals,” Powell was cited as saying in media reports. The West Texas Intermediate futures slumped by 4.5% to $58.42 due to worries Europe was facing a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic even as Germany backed off from harsher measures in April, outweighing the potential impact on supply of a container ship blocking the Suez Canal. “The weak point in Europe remains around the vaccine rollout amid the rise in new virus cases and the tightening of restrictions… which likely means the mooted acceleration in Q2 may have to be pushed back by a quarter,” National Australian Bank director of economics and markets Tapas Strickland was cited as saying in a report from Reuters. In company news, Darden Restaurants (DRI) reported fiscal third-quarter earnings and sales that slid year-on-year but still topped Wall Street estimates. Shares jumped by 8.2%, the most on S&P 500. Nike (NKE) is facing social media furor and boycott in China after the company said it was concerned about reports of forced labor in, and connected to, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. Shares fell by 3.4%, the steepest decliner on the Dow.
In the precious metals markets, gold was down 0.4% to $1,728.20 an ounce, with silver down 0.3% to $25.16 an ounce.
Among energy ETFs, the United States Oil Fund fell 3.8% to $39.89 and the United States Natural Gas Fund was up 2% to $9.64. Among precious-metal funds, the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF was down 0.2% to $32.24 and SPDR Gold Shares were down 0.4% to $161.78. The iShares Silver Trust was up 0.2% to $23.29.