Stocks - Wall Street Opens Higher as Jobless Claims Ease Slightly

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened higher on Thursday amid signs that the flood of initial jobless claims due to various state-wide lockdowns may be easing. 

By 9:35 AM ET (1335 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 193 points or 0.8% at 23,669 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.0%.

Earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics had said that the number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment benefits fell to 4.43 million last weeks from a downwardly revised 5.23 million the week before. Continuing claims also came in slightly lower than expected at 15.98 million. 

The numbers mean that over 26 million people had filed for benefits in the five weeks since the wave of coronavirus-related shutdowns began. 

"With the pain spreading from retail and hospitality to other sectors less than half of the working age population of America will be earning a wage by May," ING's chief international economist James Knightley said in a note to clients. "We have to remember that one third of Americans aged 18-.65 are not classified as employed or unemployed – they are students, early retirement, homemakers, carers or sick."

That background explains the urgency of calls from politicians to reopen the economy as fast as possible. Among the biggest gainers in early trading on Thursday were casino stocks, after Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said in an interview with CNN she wanted to reopen the town's hospitality-driven economy as soon as possible. Her comments were criticized by Governor Steve Sisolak, and President Donald Trump - who has missed few opportunities to endorse a speedy reopening - pointedly declined to be drawn into the debate.

Even so, Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) stock rose 8.5%, while Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN) stock rose 8.4% and MGM Resorts (NYSE:MGM) stock rose 4.0%.

Away from gambling - well, a bit anyway - TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) stock fell 0.4% after it missed estimates for earnings in its fiscal second quarter. Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW), which has agreed to buy the brokerage, also fell 0.5%.

Domino’s Pizza (NYSE:DPZ) stock fell 5.5% and Target (NYSE:TGT) stock fell 3.2%, both after disappointing updates. Domino's said it expected international sales to have fallen in the first four weeks of this quarter, while Target said higher staff costs and a shift towards lower-margin items by customers stockpiling essentials would hit profitability.

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Elsewhere, the dip in Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock proved short-lived as bargain-hunters drove it up 4.4%, to within 4% of its all-time high. 

Oil and gas stocks also benefited from the rebound in U.S. crude futures, which rose by nearly one-quarter to $17.16 by 10 AM. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) stock was up 5.1%, while Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) stock was up 3.5% and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) stock was up 2.5%.