After seeing early weakness, stocks have shown a notable turnaround over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The markets have benefited from the release of relatively upbeat jobs data, which has helped to offset some disappointing earnings news.
The major averages have moved roughly sideways in recent trading, hovering in positive territory. The Dow is up 46.92 points or 0.4 percent at 12,985.59, the Nasdaq is up 19.05 points or 0.7 percent at 2,952.22 and the S&P 500 is up 3.20 points or 0.2 percent at 1,360.86.
The strength that has emerged on Wall Street is partly due to the release of a report from the Labor Department showing that initial jobless claims came in unchanged in the week ended February 18th.
The report showed that jobless claims came in at 351,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised figure. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge up to 355,000 from the 348,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Despite the upward revision, the number of jobless claims in the previous week still marks the lowest level since March of 2008.
Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, said, "Bottom line, the data still points to a labor market that continues to improve however lumpy the process feels for many."
The early weakness was partly due to a negative reaction to quarterly results from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), which came on the heels of disappointing earnings news from rival Dell (DELL).
While HP reported first quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates, its revenues for the quarter fell by more than anticipated. The computer maker also forecast weaker than expected second quarter earnings. Shares of HP are down by 4.5 percent on the news.
On the other hand, retail giant Target (TGT) is up by 1.4 percent after reporting first quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates despite weaker than expected revenue growth.
Shares of Sears Holdings (SHLD) have jumped by 20 percent after the department store operator reported a substantial fourth quarter loss but announced immediate actions to improve its performance.
Sector News
Biotechnology stocks have shown a strong move to the upside over the course of the trading day, driving the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index up by 1.8 percent. The gain by the index comes after it ended the previous session at its lowest closing level in almost a month.
Within the biotech sector, Vivus (VVUS) is posting a standout gain after a FDA advisory panel recommended approval of the company's weight-loss drug Qnexa. Shares of Vivus have surged up by 87.4 percent on the news.
Considerable strength has also emerged among housing stocks, as reflected by the 1.3 percent gain being posted by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV) and Standard Pacific (SPF) are turning in two of the sector's best performances.
Telecom, brokerage, and gold stocks have also shown notable moves to the upside on the day, with gold stocks moving higher along with the price of the precious metal.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower on Thursday, although Japan's Nikkei 225 Index bucked the downtrend and closed up 0.4 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell by 0.8 percent, while Australia's All Ordinaries Index slipped 0.1 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index closed nearly flat and the German DAX Index fell by 0.5 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries are seeing modest weakness but are off their worst levels of the day. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.4 basis points at 2.019 percent after reaching an early high of 2.045 percent.
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