Stocks rose Thursday after three mostly down days as traders bought beaten-down financial and technology stocks. The buying was subdued after a worse-than-expected weekly unemployment report added to concerns that the economic recovery might not come as quickly as hoped.
The Dow rose 46.43, or 0.6 percent, to 8,331.32. The S&P 500 index rose 9.15, or 1 percent, to 893.07, while the Nasdaq rose 25.02, or 1.5 percent, to 1,689.21.
"I think we're at a crossroads. I'm looking for more evidence to say that this is a sustainable rally," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank.
That evidence may be hard to come by in the next two weeks. With first-quarter earnings reports winding down, the government's stress test results out of the way and few economic reports expected, investors may feel like they're in a bit of a data vacuum. And when there's little information to go on, a nervous market tends to fall.
Michael Strauss, chief economist and market strategist at Commonfund, said some traders had been expecting an increase in weekly unemployment claims because of planned shutdowns among the nation's automakers.
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