WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After showing a strong move to the upside at the start of trading on Thursday, stocks have given back ground over the course of the session but remain modestly higher. The early upward move lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 to new record intraday highs.
Currently, the Dow is up 113.85 points or 0.3 percent at 43,191.55, the Nasdaq is up 54.63 points or 0.3 percent at 18,421.71 and the S&P 500 is up 11.00 points or 0.2 percent at 5,853.47.
The modest strength on Wall Street comes amid a rally by semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surging by 2.2 percent.
Semiconductor stocks are recovering from the sell-off seen earlier in the week after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM) reported a sharp increase in third quarter profits.
The strong results from TSMC have offset concerns about the outlook for semiconductor demand following the warning from Dutch chipmaker ASML (ASML).
'The fate of the global stock market hinged on TSMC's results and fortunately everything is fine in AI land,' says Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.
Market leader and AI darling Nvidia (NVDA), which is one of TSMC's major customers, is surging by 2.8 percent on the day.
Positive sentiment has also been generated in reaction to a batch of largely upbeat U.S. economic data, including a Commerce Department report showing retail sales increased by slightly more than expected in the month of September.
The Commerce Department said retail sales rose by 0.4 percent in September after edging up by 0.1 percent in August. Economists had expected retail sales to rise by 0.3 percent.
Excluding sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales climbed by 0.5 percent in September after rising by 0.2 percent in August. Ex-auto sales were expected to inch up by 0.1 percent.
A separate report released by the Labor Department showed an unexpected pullback by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended October 12th.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 241,000, a decrease of 19,000 from the previous week's revised level of 260,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 260,000 from the 258,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the unexpected pullback, jobless claims gave back ground after reaching their highest level since hitting 261,000 in the week ended June 17, 2023.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve released a report showing industrial production in the U.S. fell by slightly more than expected in the month of September.
The Fed said industrial production decreased by 0.3 percent in September after rising by a downwardly revised 0.3 percent in August.
Economists had expected industrial production to dip by 0.2 percent compared to the 0.8 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.
The slightly bigger than expected decline by industrial production partly reflected a strike at Boeing (BA) and the effects of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slid by 0.7 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index slumped by 1.1 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside after the ECB lowered interest rates. While the French CAC 40 Index has jumped by 1.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index are both up by 0.7 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries are giving back ground after trending higher over the past few sessions. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 7.7 basis points at 4.093 percent.
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