U.S. stocks were higher on Thursday, as investors digested a mixed bag of news and data.
Widespread selloffs in government bonds pushed 10-year Treasury yields to their 2015 high of 2.25 at one point on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen offered her opinion that stock market valuations are ‘quite high’ and present ‘potential dangers’ to investors.
Today, markets will react to the weekly jobless claims release, which stayed relatively stable at 265,000 new claims for the week. This report is viewed largely as a preview for the main event of Friday’s employment report, which will reveal jobs created in the month of April.
Last month, the jobs report saw its most disappointing number in years, with only 126,000 new jobs created in march (as opposed to an expected 250,000.) A strong jobs report could quell some concerns on Wall Street—but a repeat performance could signal the start of a much larger problem.
As of 2:45 p.m., here are the numbers from Wall Street on Thursday:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 17,954.16 (+112.18)
NASDAQ: 4,952.00 (+32.35)
S&P 500: 2,090.16 (+10.01)
