By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Dow clawed back the bulk of its losses on Thursday, shrugging off another surge in jobless claims as financials climbed, led by bank stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.52%, or 122 points, but had been down by as many 570 points at the lows of the day. The S&P 500 gained 0.13%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.27%.
Financials rose 1.7% as banking stocks found their footing after days of getting hammered amid growing fears that a protracted economic recovery could lead to further defaults.
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Bank of America (NYSE:GS) were up more than 2%, while Wells Fargo (NYSE:C) jumped 7.4% following a report of speculation it could merge with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS).
On the economic front, investors had to contend with another surge in jobless claims as businesses have been forced to shut down amid government measures to contained the Covid-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial jobless claims were 2.981 million for the week ending May 9, above economists' forecasts of 2.7 million.
Just a day earlier, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he expected unemployment would likely peak over the next month.
Energy also pushed the broader market off session lows, underpinned by rising oil prices after the International Energy Agency touted an improved outlook in the wake of easing coronavirus restrictions.
Elsewhere, Boeing (NYSE:BA) fell 1% after Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) said it will "permanently retire" its fleet of 18 Boeing 777 aircraft by the end of the year as part of efforts to cut costs.
Delta lost 1.54%, American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) slipped 1.8% and United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) fell 3.1%
In tech, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) were among the FAANG stocks that managed to remain above the flatline, while Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) fell 1.2% after it acquired telecommunications Metaswitch Networks.