Nov. 5 (UPI) — A sustained election-week rally put U.S. markets on track for their best week since April on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 542.52 points, or 1.95%, the S&P 500 gained 1.95% and the Nasdaq Composite increased 2.59%, rising for the fourth consecutive day to start the month, as the results of the presidential election remained unclear.
The Dow was up 7.1% for the week to date while the S&P 500 was up 7.4% and the Nasdaq rose 9% over that time period, placing them on pace for their largest weekly gains since April.
Tech stocks helped to lead the rise on Thursday as Apple stock shot up 3.55%, Netflix rose 3.38%, Microsoft climbed 3.19%, Facebook increased 2.54% and Amazon ended the day up 2.49%.
Thursday’s rise came as the Federal Reserve again left its benchmark lending rate unchanged and close to zero on Thursday with the intent of supporting the U.S. economy during challenging times amid a public health crisis.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is causing tremendous human and economic hardship across the United States and around the world,” the Federal Open Market Committee said.
Markets also reacted to new economic data as the Labor Department reported that 751,000 new unemployment claims were filed for the week ending in Oct. 31 and listed the unemployment rate at 5%.
