Provided by Dow Jones
By Joe Wallace and Paul Vigna U.S. stocks resumed a familiar pattern Thursday, with tech shares rising sharply and outpacing the rest of the market. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.4%, following a 1.5% gain on Wednesday. The S&P 500 was up 0.8%, after the broad stocks gauge closed out a fourth consecutive quarterly advance on Wednesday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4%. Many investors are hopeful that stocks will continue to climb in the second quarter. Their optimism is pegged to the prospect of a surge in economic growth amid widespread vaccinations, fresh spending programs from the Biden administration and earnings expectations. Still, they point to risks stemming from rising bond yields, new lockdowns in Europe and signs of excess in corners of the market.
Provided by Dow Jones
By Joe Wallace and Paul Vigna U.S. stocks rose Thursday as the S&P 500 crossed 4000 for the time and bond yields fell, easing near-term inflation fears. The broad stock gauge was up 1% at 4012, after closing out a fourth consecutive quarterly advance on Wednesday. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.5%, building on a 1.5% gain in the previous session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%. For the S&P 500, the move from 3000 to 4000 took just 434 trading days, according to Dow Jones Market Data, by far the shortest gap between 1000-point milestones in the index s history. The move from 2000 to 3000, by comparison, took 1,227 trading days.
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A woman wears a face mask as she walks past a GameStop store in Des Plaines, Illinois, US. Photograph: Nam Y Huh/AP
The coronavirus pandemic hit GameStop hard. Like many retailers, already suffering from the shift to online sales, the video games chain is losing money and plans to close 450 stores this year. And yet, surprisingly, GameStop has become one the hottest stocks of the year.
The 37-year-old chain store group is now the focus of a David-and-Goliath battle between an army of small investors and Wall Street that shows no signs of abating and has highlighted some fundamental shifts in investing.