Thursday's Stock Market Close: US Equities Climb On Fed, White House Actions, Crude Oil Surges

U.S. stocks finished higher Thursday in choppy trading as traders assessed new fiscal measures by the Federal Reserve and White House to fight the impact of coronavirus.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 188.48 points to 20,087.40. while the S&P 500 gained 11.31 points to 2,409.41 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 160.73points to 7,150.58.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 6.85 billion shares with 2,300 issues advancing, five setting new highs, and 729 declining, with 1,047 setting new lows.

Active movers were led by Ford Motor (F), Bank of America (BAC) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT).

The Labor Department said Thursday that initial jobless claims jumped by 70,000 to a seasonally adjusted 281,000 last week -- the highest level for since Sept. 2, 2017, when it was 299,000.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index in plunged to minus-12.7 in March from 36.7 in the previous month. The March figure was the lowest reading since June 2012.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a $100 billion coronavirus relief package bill that included emergency paid leave for workers as well as free testing for coronavirus.

The Trump administration also seeks passage of a $1 trillion stimulus measure, which may include direct payments to Americans, tax cuts or relief to industries impacted by virus.

On Wednesday evening, the Federal Reserve introduced the new Money Market Mutual Liquidity Fund which will provide loans to financial institutions to purchase assets from prime money market funds.

The European Central Bank unveiled a new €750 billion ($819 billion) Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program that will buy securities to bolster the European economy. These purchases will be made until the end of 2020.

Bank of England slashed rates to 0.1%.

Trump also said he may get involved in the Saudi-Russia oil price war.

“It’s very devastating to Russia, because the whole economy is based on that, and they have the lowest prices in decades,” Trump said. “I would say it’s very bad for Saudi Arabia. But they’re in a fight, they’re in a fight on price, they’re in a fight on output. At the appropriate time I’ll get involved.”

“Trump getting involved was bound to happen with the existential threat to the oil industry,” said Walter Zimmermann, chief technical strategist at ICAP Technical Analysis. “This rebound may not have a future though unless Saudi and Russia stop digging their heels in.”

Overnight in Asia, markets fell. China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.98%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng plunged 2.61%, and Japan’s Nikkei-225 dropped 1.04%.

In Europe markets finished higher as Britain’s FTSE-100 gained 1.28%, France’s CAC-40 jumped 1.98% and Germany’s DAX rose 1.81%.

Crude oil futures gained 24.50% at $25.36per barrel, Brent crude fell 1.07% at $28.17. Gold futures gained 0.2%.

The euro dropped 2.1% at $1.0687 while the pound sterling fell 0.77% at $1.525.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped 11.61% to 1.119% while yield on the 30-year Treasury fell 8.28% to 1.74%.