Economic reports pull up US stocks

Best gains for US stocks in almost two weeks

US stocks ended modestly higher but in a mixed mode on Thursday, 18 June. Couple of encouraging economic reports took stocks higher right out of the gate today. With the help of financial and healthcare sectors, Dow traded quite strong. The initial jobless claims and the Philadelphia index report both checked in line with expectations. But the tech heavy Nasdaq failed to cling to its gains. Trading volume was exceptionally low.

The advance was broad-based as six of the ten major sectors ended din the green today. Stocks logged their best single-session advance by percent in two weeks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher by 58 points at 8,555. The Nasdaq Composite Index, ended almost unchanged at 1,807. S&P 500 ended higher 7.8 points at 918.

CocoCola, JP Morgan, Mc Donalds, Kraft Foods and Merck were the main Dow winners. Caterpillar, Chevron, H-P, GE and Microsoft were the main Dow laggards.

Weakness among semiconductors weighed on tech stocks and caused the Nasdaq to underperform the other indices.

There were quite a few economic reports scheduled today. All checked in better than expected and tried boosting overall market sentiments.

The Labor Department reported on Thursday, 18 June, 2009 that continuing U.S. jobless claims took a big drop in the latest week that ended on 6 June, 2009, in a sign that fewer people are having trouble finding employment. Continuing claims fell by 148,000 to 6.68 million during the week ended 6 June, the lowest level in about a month. The four-week average of continuing claims rose, however, by 2,250 to 6.75 million. It was the first time continuing claims fell since early January.

Initial claims, meanwhile, rose slightly in the week ended 13 June, up by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 608,000. The four-week average of initial claims fell by 7,000 to 615,750.

The improved tone also came today after the Philadelphia Fed Index showed a much smaller-than-expected decline for June. According to the data, the regional report came in with a -2.2 reading. It was expected to come in at -17.

In a separate report, the Conference Board said on Thursday that the recession is "losing steam" and a slow U.S. recovery should begin by the end of the year. The Board announced that the index of leading economic indicators rose 1.2% in May, the second straight increase. The leading index is up 1.2% in the past six months, the first increase since April 2007.

Among the earning reports for the day, Research In Motion said today that earnings for its first fiscal quarter jumped 33% on strong sales of the company's line of BlackBerry smart phones, beating Wall Street's estimates.

Crude for July delivery ended up 34 cents, or 0.5%, at $71.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract had climbed as high as $71.75 a barrel earlier but also fell to $69.75.

Earning season has come to the fag end. There are no economic reports scheduled tomorrow.