Stocks traded higher on Thursday, with investors digesting the latest stronger-than-expected print on the labor market's recovery, while still eyeing spiking prices that could throttle the recovery.
The Dow reversed overnight losses to trade slightly above the flat line. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures also gained. Bitcoin prices (BTC-USD) sank more than 10% to hover around $50,000, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the electric car-maker would stop accepting the cryptocurrency for vehicle purchases.
The rise in stocks on Thursday only partially reversed a sharp decline across the equity indexes on Wednesday. Fears of rising inflation hammered Wall Street after grim consumer price data sparked a sell-off in blue chip and technology shares, amplifying new concerns about the rebound from COVID-19. The Dow Jones Industrial Index (^DJI), S&P 500 Index (^GSPC)and Nasdaq (^IXIC) all plummeted, closing more than 2% lower on the day. Tech stocks suffered their worst day since March 18, according to Yahoo Finance data, while the Dow had its worst showing since late January.
Meanwhile, after Friday's disappointing U.S. jobs report, all eyes Thursday were on initial jobless claims, which dipped below the psychologically-important threshold of 500,000 to a new pandemic-era low.
