United States stock markets again scored a record high in trading in line with investor optimism about the prospect of economic recovery. Small cap stocks led the gains.
Reporting from Bloomberg, Wall Street scored a four-day strengthening in trading Thursday (4/2/2021). The S&P 500 index advanced 1.1 percent. Likewise with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite index, compact rose 1.08 percent and 1.23 percent.
The S&P 500 index climbed to a record high after banking and technology stocks rallied. The Russell 2000 index of small cap stocks jumped 2 percent. Ebay Inc and PayPal Holdings Inc surged as performance projections were strong. Meanwhile, Netflix Inc also strengthened after raising prices in Japan.
GameStop Corp., which had a frenzy of gains, tumbled with a weekly decline of more than 80 percent as retail investors now chase other stocks such as pharmaceuticals.
Lots of Positive Sentiment to Create a Bullish Trend
The bullish trend that occurred on Wall Street occurred in line with the improvement in the performance of issuers, coupled with the accommodative policies of The Federal Reserve, which generated positive sentiment on the stock market, according to a report by UBS Group AG.
The jobless claims report shows the lowest level since November 2020. The latest data will be released on Friday (5/2/2021) and it is estimated that the labor market will get an additional 100,000 jobs in January 2021 after falling by 140,000 a month earlier.
“We appear to have shifted our focus back to fundamentals,” said Arthur Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities Corp., as quoted by Bloomberg.
He explained that the development of the handling of Covid-19 had positive progress and at the same time the financial reporting season showed improvement. Market participants are starting to return to the fundamental aspects of reducing trading activity due to sentiment and Reddit-style stock pump practices.
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