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* Weekly jobless claims fall in the latest week
* Oracle falls as revenue misses estimates
* Bumble jumps after revenue beat
* Indexes up: Dow 0.7%, S&P 0.9%, Nasdaq 1.8%
(Updates to market open)
By Medha Singh and Shashank Nayar
March 11 (Reuters) - The blue-chip Dow index hit an all-time
high for the fourth straight session on Thursday as worries
about rising inflation eased, while a bigger-than-expected fall
in weekly jobless claims reinforced expectations of a labor
market recovery.
Fewer than expected Americans filed new claims for
unemployment benefits last week as an improving public health
environment allows more segments of the economy to reopen.
"The drop in jobless claims is another win for the week, and
a solid sign that we're making some strides toward pre-pandemic
life," said Mike Loewengart, managing director of investment
strategy at E*TRADE Financial.
The Dow on Wednesday logged a record closing high for the
first time in two weeks as tepid inflation numbers allayed fears
that the economy is running too hot while a sweeping $1.9
trillion COVID-19 relief bill received a final nod from
Congress. Financial .SPSY and industrials .SPLRCI dipped on
Thursday after outperforming other major S&P sectors this year
as they are seen benefitting from a reopening economy. Tech
.SPLRCT and consumer discretionary .SPLRCD , the two
stay-at-home beneficiaries which had recently taken a beating,
jumped 1.2% and 1.4%.
"There is a clear rotation into value stocks over growth,"
said Julius de Kempenaer, senior technical analyst at
StockCharts.com in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
"It will be interesting to see whether these value sectors
are able to hold up the uptrend in the S&P 500."
At 10:00 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 214.88 points, or 0.67%, to 32,511.90, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 36.20 points, or 0.93%, to 3,935.01 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC gained 231.40 points, or 1.77%, to 13,300.24.
The benchmark Treasury yields US10UT=RR were at 1.53%
ahead of an auction of U.S. 30-year debt later in the day. A
weak seven-year auction in late February fuelled inflation
concerns and sent yields higher. Mega-cap stocks Apple Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O ,
Facebook Inc FB.O and Tesla Inc TSLA.O gained between 1.4%
and 2.3% and were among the biggest boosts to the S&P 500, which
was less than 15 points below its Feb. 16 all-time high of
3,950.43. US/
The Nasdaq is now about 6% below its Feb. 12 record close
after falling as much as 12% last week.
Bumble Inc BMBL.O jumped about 10.7% after it reported a
bigger-than-estimated rise in fourth-quarter revenue and said it
expected pent-up demand from people who had been avoiding dating
in person due to the pandemic. A so-called "meme" stock AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc
AMC.N gained 6.6% as the cinema chain said the roll-out of
COVID-19 vaccines and the release of major movies would boost
sales this year. Oracle Corp ORCL.N slumped 9% as the business software
maker's cloud division reported quarterly revenue that missed
analysts' estimates on increased competition from Amazon.com Inc
AMZN.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O . Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.9-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 3.1-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 39 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 234 new highs and seven new lows.