Wall Street ended the week on a high note, with stocks advancing on Friday. It was a turbulent week for investors as they tried to make sense of mixed economic data and corporate earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite also advanced, closing up 1%.
The market had been in flux all week due to conflicting news about the economy and companies’ performances. On Thursday, jobless claims unexpectedly increased by 12 thousand from last month’s figure of 576 thousand but initial jobless claims remained below one million for an eighth straight week – signaling that layoffs are still slowing down despite rising coronavirus cases across parts of America.
Meanwhile, several major companies reported quarterly results this past week which were generally positive but not enough to drive markets higher significantly throughout the period; Microsoft Corp., Amazon Inc., Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc., Facebook Inc., and Tesla Motors all posted better-than-expected profits during their respective quarters ending June 30th 2020 . Despite some volatility over recent days, Wall Street managed to close out with weekly gains overall – providing hope that investor confidence is slowly returning after months of disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic.
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