Banks Lead Stocks Higher, Trump Eases Syria Fears -- U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks rallied Thursday, led by bank stocks, after President Donald Trump eased fears of a wider conflict in Syria.

"Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our 'Thank you America?'" Trump tweeted.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 305 points to 24,493, led by IBM. The S&P 500 rose 26 points, or 1%. The Nasdaq composite advanced 1.1% on a strong day for tech stocks.

In ecnonomic news, U.S. import prices came in unchanged in March, while export prices increased by more than expected.

The Labor Department said import prices recorded no change in March after climbing by 0.3 percent in February. Economists had expected import prices to rise by 0.2 percent.

First time claims for unemployment benefits decreased in the week ended April 7th.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 233,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 242,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to drop to 230,000.

General Electric Co. (GE) is exploring a public offering for one of its divisions and discussing hybrid deals with public companies to combine assets, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter. Shares rose fractionally.

Volkswagen AG's (VKW.L, VLKAF.PK, VOW.BE) supervisory board is meeting a day earlier than planned in a sign the German carmaker was caught off guard in its attempt to push through a change in top management and organization, according to reports.

In its debut, shares of Zuora Inc. (ZUO) surged 43% above its initial public offering price.

Hearst said that it has purchased from Fimalac S.A. an additional 20 percent interest in global financial information services company Fitch Group, bringing Hearst's equity interest to 100 percent. The transaction is valued at $2.8 billion.