US stocks gain, shrugging off two down days

NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street stocks finished modestly higher on Thursday (April 7), shrugging off two losing sessions as investors reassess equity valuations in light of the Federal Reserve's tougher stance.

After tumbling on Tuesday and Wednesday, the tech-rich Nasdaq spent much of Thursday in the red, however, stocks strengthened later in the day, lifting the index into positive territory.

"Growth (stocks) might be seen as being a little oversold," said Art Hogan, chief strategist at National Securities, adding that investors have fewer questions about Federal Reserve intentions after a stream of recent comments from central bankers, and the minutes of last month's policy meeting spelled out an aggressive posture to counter inflation.

"Having a roadmap of future monetary policy took away some of the shock factor," Hogan said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.3 per cent to finish the day at 34,583.57.

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.4 per cent to 4,500.21, while the Nasdaq eked out a 0.1 per cent rise to close at 13,897.30.

Investors are beginning to look ahead to a heavy calendar next week that includes release of new consumer price data and earnings from JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and other leading banks.

This week was light on new statistices, but a report released Thursday showed new jobless claims returned to a multi-decade low last week.

Among individual companies HP surged 14.8 per cent on news that Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway had built about an 11 per cent stake in the technology company.