U.S. stocks were higher on Thursday, as the market attempted to recover from a rough stretch that has wiped out all 2015 gains in the major indexes.
In the past four days, the Dow shed 500 points, while the S&P 500 tumbled almost 4% from its all-time high just 10 days ago.
Investors continue to watch the ongoing growth of the U.S. dollar. The dollar index hit a 12-year high on Thursday, while the Euro’s downturn continued. It’s possible that markets worldwide are beginning to see the negative consequences of quantitative easing programs.
On the data side, retail sales came in at -0.6% for February. The number disappointed experts, who’d predicted a slight increase. Jobless claims came in at 289,000, about 10% less than last week’s 320,000.
As of 3:30 p.m., here are the numbers from Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 17,895.28 (+259.89)
NASDAQ: 4,893.29 (+43.35)
S&P 500: 2,065.95 (+25.71)
