US Stocks Surge On Good Earnings, Better Labour Data

Wall Street stocks shrugged off weeks of lacklustre trading and forged higher on Thursday following strong earnings and better-than-expected economic data.

Analysts greeted a trove of strong results from leading banks, as well as good earnings from Dow member UnitedHealth and Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Other catalysts included a big drop in US unemployment claims that left the weekly benchmark below 300,000 last week for the first time since the pandemic began.

Art Hogan, chief strategist at National Securities said: "Earnings are here and so far they're not disruptive."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.6 percent to 34,913. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.7 percent to 4,438, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also climbed 1.7 percent to 14,823.

Markets also took stock of the latest reading on wholesale prices from the Labour Department. The producer price index climbed 8.6 percent last month compared to September 2020, their biggest gain in a decade but slower than the month prior.

Hogan said the market was due for a good day after struggling most of September and October.

"We've been grinding lower since September, so the table was set for some good news."

Among individual companies reporting results, Walgreens Boots Alliance surged 7.4 percent and UnitedHealth won 4.2 percent.

Large banks mostly rose after strong earnings results, although Wells Fargo fell 1.6 percent even as its results topped estimates. (AFP)