Oct. 7 (UPI) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 300 points Thursday as stocks continued to rally in reaction to Congress reaching a deal to extend the debt ceiling.
The blue-chip index gained 337.95 points, or 0.98%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.83% and the Nasdaq Composite closed the day up 1.05%.
Stocks were largely buoyed by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announcing that Senate leaders reached an agreement Thursday on a temporary extension of the debt limit with a vote possible as soon as Thursday evening.
“The debt ceiling is one of many factors right now that we think are causing these gyrations in the markets,” Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist for BMO Wealth Management, told Yahoo Finance, amid a volatile start to October. “Certainly the market will take some comfort when there is a deal, when it is more formalized.”
Tech shares continued their rally after dragging markets down earlier in the month due to rising treasury yields. Twitter stock rose 4.37% and chipmakers also got a boost as AMD gained 2.71% Nvidia rose 1.81%.
Shares of Rocket Lab USA shot up 10.43% after the company announced late Wednesday that its Electron rocket was selected by NASA to launch the space agency’s Advanced composite Solar Sail System, or ACS3, in mid-2022.
Markets also got a boost as the Labor Department reported that unemployment claims per week has fallen to 326,000 last week, down almost 40,000 from the previous week. It was the first decline in four weeks.
Friday will also yield a jobs report that could influence the Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to scale down its pandemic bond purchasing program.
