U.S. Stocks End Higher as Financial Shares Rally With Materials

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rose for the first time in three days as financial and industrial shares climbed.

The S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent to 2,356 at 4 p.m. in New York. The benchmark fell 0.2 percent on Wednesday as an early rally in financial companies reversed and energy shares slid. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced on Thursday, up 174 points to 20,579.

• Nasdaq Composite surged 0.9% to a record 5917
• Financials add 1.6%, led by American Express, Navient and KeyCorp
• Energy companies up 0.4% as crude oil drops 0.3%; Bloomberg Commodity Index down 0.2% after losing as much as 0.8%
• Volume elevated from 30-day average in every group but materials and energy shares; 6.7 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges (YTD average: 6.7 billion)
  • Volume movers: United Rentals (URI), CSX (CSX), Ebay (EBAY), Snap-On (SNA), Danaher (DHR) all trading at least 2x 30-day avg in early trading
• VIX down to 14.2
  • Volatility movers: Northern Trust (NTRS), Vornado Realty (VNO), Church & Dwight (CHD), JB Hunt Transport Services (JBHT), Total Systems Services (TSS) have highest put/call volume ratio in S&P 500
• POLITICS:
  • Emmanuel Macron’s rivals are training their fire on the centrist newcomer as opinion polls signal his narrow lead may be firming 3 days before the first round of France’s presidential election
• ECONOMY:
  • U.S. weekly jobless claims rose 10k to 244k; est. 240k; prior week claims unrevised from 234k
  • Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index eased for the first time in three weeks as households became less upbeat about the buying climate and the state of the economy
• EARNINGS:
  • After-market Thursday: E*Trade Financial (ETFC), Mattel (MAT), Visa (V), Robert Half International (RHI), Skechers (SKX). Manhattan Associates (MANH), Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM)
  • Pre-market Friday: Honeywell (HON), SunTrust Banks (STI), General Electric (GE), Kansas City Southern (KSU), Stanley Black & Decker (SWK), Rockwell Collins (COL), Schlumberger (SLB), Interpublic (IPG), NextEra Energy (NEE)
• Europe Market
  • Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.2% at the close in London

For more equity market news:

• U.S. Individual Investor Bulls Fall to Near 6-Month Low: AAII
• Dark Pool for College Kids? Startup Bets on an Unusual Market
• Crowding-Out Effect Sours Credit Suisse on U.S. Stocks: Chart

To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Renick in New York at orenick2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Sebastian Silva