Stocks climb again on hopes for stimulus deal

Stocks rose for the second day in a row Thursday, ref lecting hope on Wall Street that Washington can approve more aid for the economy and encouragement from a report that suggests the pace of layoffs is slowing a bit, even though it remains incredibly high.

The S& P 500 climbed 0.8%, adding to its solid gains from a day earlier, when President Donald Trump apparently backtracked on his decision to halt talks on more aid for the economy. He said in a televised interview Thursday morning that “very productive” talks have begun on stimulus.

Stocks have been particularly rocky since early September, swerving on worries about everything from too- expensive prices to the still-raging pandemic, but the S&P 500 has been generally climbing the last two weeks and is on pace for its best week since August.

Resurgent optimism about the possibility that the Democrats and Republicans will deliver another economic aid package has kept investors in a buying mood the past couple of days.

“The markets hope that both sides have sort of given their opening bids and now they can meet somewhere in the middle and do so fairly quickly,” said J. J. Kinahan, chief strategist with TD Ameritrade.

The S&P 500 index rose 27.38points to3,446.83. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 122.05 points, or 0.4%, to 28,425.51. The Nasdaq composite picked up 56.38 points, or 0.5%, to 11,420.98.

Small company stocks fared better than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index of small- cap stocks climbed 17.51 points, or 1.1%, to 1,628.55. Global stock indexes also closed higher.

Banks, technology and communication companies accounted for much of the broad gains. Energy stocks notched the biggest gain as the price of U. S. crude oil climbed more than 3%. Occidental Petroleum climbed 8.8%, the biggest gainer in the S&P 500.

A government report showed that 840,000 workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. That’s down slightly from 849,000 the prior week, though it’s still remarkably high compared with history. It also was slightly worse than economists were expecting, 837,000.