New York (AFP)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the flagship index of the New York Stock Exchange, ended up on Thursday, taking advantage of a better than expected figure for weekly jobless claims in the United States and the surge in Boeing's stock.

The Dow Jones gained 0.41% to 34,464.64 points, finishing around ten points from its May 7 record.

The extended S&P 500 index also rose, by 0.12% to 4,200.88 points, while the long undecided Nasdaq ended up close to equilibrium (-0.01% to 13,736.28 points).

Wall Street welcomed the decline in the number of new unemployed registrants in the United States last week.

According to weekly figures from the Department of Labor, some 406,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits from May 16 to 22, 38,000 less than the previous week and less than the 425,000 predicted by analysts.

The Dow Jones was also carried by the rise of Boeing, whose stock rose 3.87%.

The aircraft manufacturer, which hopes air traffic will return to normal with the economy restarting, has agreed to pay at least $ 17 million in fines to the US aviation oversight agency, the FAA, for production problems on the 737 MAX and the 737 NG.

If the new jobless claims in the United States are promising, durable goods orders in April were disappointing by falling for the first time in a year, weighed down by transport.

They fell 1.3% from March when analysts expected them to increase by 0.8%.

Another indicator followed by the market Thursday morning, US GDP growth in the first quarter was confirmed at 6.4% annualized, according to figures from the Department of Commerce.

On Friday, the US government will publish the PCE price index which will measure inflation on an annual basis, except for volatile energy and food prices.

"The market will have to be careful not to overreact," warns Sam Stovall, who recalls that the Federal Reserve (Fed) has repeatedly indicated that it believed that inflation was only "temporary".

Among the values ​​of the day, Bayer lost 2.10%.

A US judge on Wednesday refused to validate an agreement providing for the German group to set aside up to $ 2 billion to ward off future lawsuits related to Round'Up, a herbicide suspected of being carcinogenic, saying that the agreement was "clearly unreasonable" for some complainants.

The chain of cinemas AMC jumped a little more than 35%.

Prized by very active stock marketers on a forum on the Reddit website, the stock has taken off 1.150% since the start of the year with no apparent connection to its health or its financial outlook.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt rose to 1.60%, against 1.57% the night before.

© 2021 AFP