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March 24 (UPI) — U.S. markets rose on Thursday amid a volatile week of trading that has alternated between losses and gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 349.44 points, or 1.02%, while the S&P 500 increased 1.43% and the Nasdaq Composite closed the day up 1.93%.
Chip stocks were some of the largest gainers on Thursday as shares of Nvidia rose 9.82%, Intel gained 6.94% and AMD rose 5.8%.
Shares of Uber rose 4.96% as the ride-sharing company reached a deal to list New York City’s yellow taxi cabs on its app.
Bitcoin was up 2.39% following the closing bell after rising as much as 4% as investors were more open to take risks.
Materials was the second-best-performing sector on the S&P 500 Thursday with Nucor rising 4.37% and Freeport-McMoran gaining 3.29%.
The S&P 500 has posted its best two-year gain since 1937, rising more than 100% from its low in March 2020 after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, according to Bespoke Investment Group.
Markets on Thursday reacted to a Labor Department report showing that the number of people filing for unemployment insurance for the first time fell 28,000 last week to 187,000, its lowest total since late 1969.
Also Thursday the United States announced it would expand sanctions against Russia and will take in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees along with providing $1billion in aid to the country as it combats a Russian invasion.
Markets have been see-sawing this week after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Monday said that inflation is “much too high” and pledged the central bank would take the necessary efforts to correct it.
Despite the volatility this week all three major averages are on track to end March with gains with the S&P 500 up 3.2% for the month, while the Nasdaq Composite is up 3.1% and the Dow has risen 2.4%.
