Investing.com – Wall Street closed sharply higher on Thursday, led by a surge in shares of Walmart after the retailer posted earnings that beat expectations while investors cheered signs of progress on tax reform after the House passed a tax bill.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 23,458.36. The S&P 500 closed 0.82% higher while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6793.29, up 1.30%.
Risk-on sentiment returned following the recent sell-off as strong earnings by both cisco and Walmart offset mixed economic data to lift the broader indexes to session highs.
Shares of Walmart closed more than 10% higher as the retailer reported strong earnings and revenue that topped expectations with e-commerce sales rising 50% in the fiscal third quarter.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial jobless claims increased 10,000 a seasonally adjusted 249,000 for the week ended Nov. 11, missing forecasts of a 4,000 decrease.
U.S. industrial output rose 0.9% in October as construction and utilities production continued to recovered following the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma last month.
The Philly Fed manufacturing index for November fell to 22.7 in November from 27.9 in October, undershooting economists’ forecasts for a reading of 25.
On the political front, House Republicans moved closer to overhauling the American tax system after they passed a bill to cut taxes Thursday.
The tax reform plan passed the chamber with 227 votes in favour and 205 against. The victory for Republicans stoked expectations that a tax reform bill would be pushed through before year-end.
'Bulls and Bears' on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers for the session: Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) up 10.9%,Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) up 5.2% and DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) up 5.5%
The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) down 2.2%, Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) down 0.8% and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) down 1.5%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.