Stocks Rebound As Rising Jobless Claims Sustain Rate-Cut Hopes, Dollar Falls, Gold Rallies: What's Driving Markets Thursday?

Wall Street is seeing a day of gains as all major indices traded in the green around noon in New York, driven by a surprising uptick in unemployment claims prompting speculation over Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.

Jobless benefits rose from 209,000 to 231,000 in the week ending May 4, surpassing market expectations of 210,000 and reaching the highest level in eight months.

Consequently, the U.S. dollar Index (DXY), tracked by the Invesco DB USD Index Bullish Fund ETF UUP, declined by 0.2% in reaction to the data, as market participants slightly increased bets on a September Fed cut.

The S&P 500 index inched up by 0.1%, following Wednesday’s flat close, while blue chips of the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.4%, aiming for their seventh consecutive day of gains, the longest streak since December 2023.

Small caps, tracked by the iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM, increased by 0.5%.

Gold surged by 1% and silver by 2.8% due to the lower dollar. Bitcoin BTC/USD saw a 1.4% increase.

Elsewhere, the Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged, while flagging rising chances of imminent rate cuts as new inflation projections reveal that price pressures will fall below target in two years.

Thursday’s Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY rose 0.2% to $518.53, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA rose 0.5% to $392.26 and the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ was unchanged at $440.08, according to Benzinga Pro data. 

Sector-wise, the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund XLRE outperformed, up 1.7%, followed by the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund XLU, up 0.8%. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK was the major laggard, down 0.3%.

Thursday’s Stock Movers

• Equinix Inc. EQIX rose 11%, marking the best performance in the S&P 500, after the real estate company topped funds from operation results last quarter despite missing overall revenue and earnings.
• Other stocks reacting to earnings were Airbnb Inc. ABNB, The Trade Desk Inc. TDD down 7%, Applovin Corp APP, up 18%, Robinhood Markets Inc. HOOD down 1.8%, Texas Pacific Land Corp. TPL up 9%, Exact Sciences Corp. EXAS tumbled 9%, and Duolingo Inc. DUOL, down 17%.
• NRG Energy Inc. NRG up 8%, Constellation Energy Corp. CEG up 1%, Roblox Corp. RBLX down 21.1%, Warner Bros Discovery Inc. WBD, US Foods Holding Corp. USFD up 5.5%, Viatris Inc. VTRS down 4.3%.
• Those reporting after the close include Akamai Technologies, Inc. AKAM, Blink Charging Co. BLNK, Dropbox, Inc. DBX, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. LGF, Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. MARA, Navitas Semiconductor Corporation NVTS, Rackspace Technology, Inc. RXT, Synaptics Incorporated SYNA and Yelp Inc. YELP.

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