Washington - SPA
Stocks rose Thursday on positive U.S. labor-market data, reversing five days of declines, but gains shrank as investors worried that Washington was running out of time to reach deals to avoid a government shutdown and a possible U.S. debt default. In U.S. economic news, jobless claims fell to near a 6-year low, and the government confirmed that the economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter of the year. A third report showed that pending home sales fell for the third consecutive month, likely the result of rising mortgage rates. The U.S. dollar rose versus the euro and the yen. Light sweet crude oil was little changed near $103 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures fell below $1,325 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 55.04, or 0.4 percent, to 15,328.30. Twenty-one of the index’s 30 stocks rose, led by new component Nike, which advanced 2 percent. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 5.90, or 0.35 percent, to 1,698.67. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 26.33, or 0.7 percent, to 3,787.43. Facebook shares hit a record high, nearly doubling since the social-networking giant’s second-quarter results in July. Yahoo shares rose to a 6-year high. Shares of eBay jumped after the online auctioneer acquired a payment platform.