By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 extended gains Thursday, rising to nearly three-month highs, shrugging off a slew of negative economic data showing a deeper-than-expected slump in economic growth and another wave of job losses.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.72%, or 183 points, the S&P 500 gained 0.99%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.10%.
The U.S. Labor Department reported that workers filed 2.123 million new unemployment claims last week, just above forecasts of 2.1 million, but below the prior week's downwardly revised 2.446 million.
In another stark reminder of the Covid-19 pandemic's impact on the economy, revised government data showed first-quarter GDP contracted at an annual pace of 5% rather than 4.8%.
The weaker backdrop for the economy, however, has had little sway on the broader market, with many betting on a second-half economic rebound amid optimism over the progress on reopening the economy so far.
As efforts to reopen the economy continue, healthcare stocks have caught a bid, with Moderna and Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) leading the pack of drugmakers in the race to find a Covid-19 cure.
Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) jumped 9.4% after reaching a deal with CordenPharma for the supply of volumes of the lipids used to produce its coronavirus vaccine candidate candidate mRNA-1273.
Tech, meanwhile, also led the gains on Wall Street, as social media stocks pared losses, which followed reports that President Donald Trump is set to sign an order seeking to limit the power of social media platforms like Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB).
Financials gave up some of their gains from earlier this week as investors seemingly took profit on bank stocks, with JPMorgan (NYSE:NYSE:JPM), Bank of America (NYSE:NYSE:BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE:C) trading below the flatline.
The earnings front, meanwhile, also supported sentiment amid mostly bullish quarterly reports from corporates.
Discount retailer Dollar Tree Inc (NASDAQ:DLTR) rose 11% after its first-quarter earnings topped consensus estimates as panic buying during the height of the pandemic demand boosted growth.
Cloud-based company Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) surged 8.5% after first-quarter revenue beat estimates, rising 23% on strong demand for its cloud services offering.
Elsewhere, Boeing (NYSE:BA) was up 3% after detailing plans to cut 13,000 jobs and confirming that it would production of its maligned 737 MAX jets.