Meta Helping Lead Extended Rally On Wall Street

Stocks have moved mostly higher in morning trading on Thursday, extending the rally seen late in the previous session. The tech-heavy Nasdaq has shown a particularly strong upward move, reaching its best levels since last September.

In recent trading, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 have reached new highs for the session. The Nasdaq is up 351.45 points or 3.0 percent at 12,167.77, while the S&P 500 is up 59.65 points or 1.5 percent at 4,178.86.

Meanwhile, the narrower Dow has climbed off its worst levels but remains modestly lower, slipping 77.39 points or 0.2 percent at 34,015.57.

The surge by the Nasdaq comes as Meta Platforms (META) is leading a tech sector rally, with the Facebook parent is skyrocketing by 24.2 percent.

The spike by Meta comes after the company reported better than expected fourth quarter revenues and announced a $40 billion stock buyback.

Stocks also continue to benefit from a positive reaction to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate announcement on Wednesday, with traders expressing optimism the Fed is nearing the end of its rate hiking cycle.

At the same time, the Dow is bucking the uptrend due partly to a notable decline by shares of Merck (MRK), which are down by 3.0 percent after the drug giant provided disappointing guidance.

Traders are also looking ahead to the release of the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

A day ahead of the monthly report, the Labor Department released a report unexpectedly showing another modest decrease by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended January 28th.

The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 183,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 186,000. The dip surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to climb to 200,000.

With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 181,000 in the week ended April 23, 2022.

A separate report released by the Labor Department showed U.S. labor productivity surged by more than expected in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Airline stocks have moved sharply higher on the day, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring by 4.2 percent to its best intraday level in over five months.

Substantial strength is also visible among software stocks, as reflected by the 3.0 percent spike by the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index. The index has reached a four-month intraday high.

Retail stocks are also seeing significant strength, resulting in a 3.0 percent surge by the Dow Jones U.S. Retail Index. With the jump, the index has also reached its best intraday level in over four months.

Computer hardware, commercial real estate and housing stocks are also showing strong moves to the upside, while oil service, gold and pharmaceutical stocks are seeing notable weakness.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index edged up by 0.2 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi climbed by 0.7 percent.

The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index has surged by 1.9 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 1.2 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.6 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are extending the rally seen late in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 3.2 basis points at 3.365 percent.

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