Dow And S&P 500 Nearly Offset Yesterday's Losses

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Thursday after recovering from an early move to the downside. A batch of upbeat economic data helped to offset concerns about the outlook for interest rates.

Banking stocks helped to lead the markets higher ahead of the release of the Fed's stress test results, with the Dow Jones Banks Index surging up by 2.4 percent. The gain extended a recent upward trend by the index, which reached its best closing level in over five years.

Zions Bancorp (ZION), JP Morgan (JPM), and BNY Mellon (BK) turned in some of the banking sector's best performances on the day.

Considerable strength was also visible among telecom stocks, as reflected by the 2 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Telecom Index. With the gain, the index reached a six-year closing high.

Semiconductor stocks also turned in a strong performance, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 1.9 percent to a fourteen year closing high.

Brokerage, software, and electronic storage stocks also moved notably higher on the day, while housing stocks came under pressure.

The major averages all closed in positive territory, with the Dow and the S&P 500 nearly offsetting yesterday's losses. The Dow jumped 108.88 points or 0.7 percent to 16,331.05, the Nasdaq rose 11.68 points or 0.3 percent to 4,319.29 and the S&P 500 climbed 11.24 points or 0.6 percent to 1,872.01.