By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened higher on Thursday, buoyed by revived hopes of a new package of fiscal stimulus measure to sustain an economy whose rebound from the pandemic has appeared to weaken in recent data.
By 9:35 AM ET (1335 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 223 points, or 0.8%, at 28,005 points, while the S&P 500 was up 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.2%.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had "productive" conversations on Wednesday and now agree on more parts of what a stimulus package should contain, even though they still remain some $600 billion apart on the overall size of the measures, according to various reports.
Stock futures had earlier trimmed their premarket gains after data showing that personal incomes fell by 2.7% in August, following the end of enhanced unemployment benefits in July. While personal spending still grew, it did so at a reduced rate of 1.0%. Those numbers were published at the same time as data showing that initial jobless claims continue to run at abormally high levels - 837,000 more people filing claims last week. The number of continuing claims, by contrast, fell by nearly 1 million, more sharply than expected.
The decline in claims was "welcome, but not definitive", said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics. "With total initial claims, regular plus (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance), at almost 1.5 million per week, the labor market clearly is still in turmoil."
Elsewhere, the Institute of Supply Management's manufacturing survey showed activity cooled a little in September, although the pace of labor-shedding by the sector slowed. The ISM's purchasing mangers index fell to 55.4, its first drop in five months. Analysts had expected a rise to 56.4 from 56 last month.
Among early movers, Palantir (NYSE:PLTR) stock rose 5.8% on its second day of trading, shaking off a weak close to its debut on Wednesday, while DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG) stock rose 3.2% to yet another all-time high. Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) rose 25% after an encouraging quarterly update, while Pepsico (NASDAQ:PEP) stock fell 0.7% after warning of currency headwinds to its full-year figures.
Financial stocks underperformed after the Federal Reserve's decision to extend its cap on dividend payments and suspension of stock buybacks by banks until the end of the year. While that was the consensus expectation, a minority of investors had hoped for an early end to the restrictions. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) stock and Citigroup (NYSE:C) stock were both up by less than 0.1%.
In biotech, Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) stock fell 1.9% after it said its experimental Covid-19 drug wouldn't be ready before the presidential election in November.