U.S. stocks bounced on Thursday as investors soaked in the Federal Reserve's outlook for interest rate hikes and turned their attention to Friday’s jobs report.
At 10:29 AM ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 178 points, or 0.6%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.9% and the NASDAQ Composite rose 1.4%.
The Dow is now up for the third time in four days as investors try to shake off concerns about a looming recession. Friday’s jobs report for June is expected to shed more light on economic trends, expected to increase modestly though not by as much as the number of jobs added in May.
The minutes from the Federal Reserve’s June policy meeting shows the central bank is still on track to raise interest rates quickly, by a 0.5 to 0.75 percentage point, at the July meeting. That is because the Fed’s primary goal is still to bring inflation down.
New jobless claims and continuing claims rose slightly last week, while the trade deficit for May was down from the prior month at $85.5 billion.
GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) shares jumped 7.5% in early trading on Thursday after the company detailed its stock split, aiming for a 4-for-1 transaction later this summer.
Seagen Inc (NASDAQ:SGEN) stock rose more than 1.7% after a report that Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) was near a deal to buy the biotech company for $40 billion.
Energy stocks rebounded after a couple of down days. Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) stock rose 3%, while Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) each rose 4%.
Oil also tried to stage a rally. Crude Oil WTI Futures was up 4%, to $103 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures was up 4%, to $104.96 a barrel. Gold Futures was up 0.5%, to $1,744 an ounce.
