Wall Street Share Prices Rise Amid Optimism for US Economy and Fed Decision

Share prices on Wall Street rose on Thursday, reflecting greater optimism about the US economy and the belief that the US Federal Reserve (FRS) will not raise interest rates next week.

Stock prices also rose mostly in European stock markets, despite data about the eurozone slipping into recession after negative growth in the first quarter.

Analysts see the rise in share prices of US industrial companies as evidence of an expansion in the stock market. B. Riley Financial analyst Art Hogan also sees growing investor confidence that the FRS will not raise interest rates.

Data from the U.S. Department of Labor show that the number of new claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. last week rose more than expected. The U.S. reported 261,000 new jobless claims last week, up 28,000 from the previous week’s 233,000, according to revised data. Analysts had expected the number of new jobless claims to rise to 235,000 last week, compared to the initial estimate. 232,000.

The data fueled “suggestion that the labor market is finally starting to respond to the impact of previous interest rate hikes and rising inflation,” said Fawad Razakzada, market analyst at City Index.

The US dollar fell against the euro and other major currencies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% to 33,833.61 on Thursday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 0.6% to 4,293.93, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.0% to 13,238.52 points.

London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3% to 7,599.74 on Thursday, Frankfurt’s DAX rose 0.2% to 15,989.96 and Paris’ CAC 40 rose 0.3% to 7,222. 15 points.

In electronic trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the price of WTI crude oil fell 1.2% to $71.63 a barrel on Thursday. “Brent” crude oil price on the London exchange decreased by 1.0% to 76.17 dollars per barrel.

On the Dutch exchange “Title Transfer Facility” (TTF), the price of natural gas rose by 2.33% to 26.95 euros per megawatt hour on Thursday.

The euro rose to $1.0696 to $1.0785 per euro on Thursday, the British pound rose to $1.2438 to $1.2560 per pound on Thursday, and the dollar to the Japanese yen fell from 140.13 to 138.89 yen per dollar. The euro fell against the British pound from 86.02 to 85.82 pence per euro.