Dow climbs 200 points as stocks set to cap off best month in more than a year

How are stocks trading

• The S&P 500
  SPX
  fell by 4 points, or 0.1%, to 4,546.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average
  DJIA
  gained 196 points, or 0.6%, to 35,623.
• The Nasdaq Composite
  COMP
  fell by 40 points, or 0.3%, to 14,217.

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13 points, or 0.04%, to 35,430; the S&P 500 declined 4 points, or 0.09%, to 4,551; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 23 points, or 0.16%, to 14,258.

What’s driving markets

U.S. stocks wavered between gains and losses after the open on Thursday, while the Dow powered higher, driven by a more than 8% gain in shares of Salesforce Inc. following a batch of strong quarterly earnings.

See: Salesforce’s stock rises 9% on strong quarterly earnings

Investors also parsed a couple of closely watched economic reports on Thursday. Investors received yet another report showing inflation continued to ease last month. The core personal-consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation, was up 3.5% year-over-year in October, compared with 3.7% in September.

“…[T]his morning’s PCE print underscores that inflationary pressures continue to moderate to the downside, but the questions remains if it will be enough for the Fed to declare a final victory,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial.

See: PCE Inflation Slips as Expected. The Fed Could Mull Rate Cuts.

Meanwhile, jobless claims continued to tick higher, offering more evidence that the U.S. labor market is cooling. Investors will receive a monthly report on job creation from the Labor Department next week.

Initial jobless claims rose 7,000 to 218,000, in the week ending Nov. 25, the Labor Department said Thursday.  Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had estimated new claims would rise 11,000 to 220,000. 

See: Jobless claims tick higher in latest week, reaching highest level in 2 years

Easing price pressures in recent months have helped propel the S&P 500 up more than 8.5% in November, its best month in more than a year and its seventh-best month of the last 20 years, according to FactSet data.

Investors also digested comments from New York Fed President John Williams, the latest in a long line of Fed speakers who have made public comments about the central bank’s monetary policy this week. Williams said that the central bank has raised interest rates at or near their peak.

See: Fed’s Williams says interest rates are ‘at, or near’ peak

Companies reporting results on Thursday included Kroger
KR,
+0.72%,
TD Bank
TD,
-1.22%
and Cracker Barrel
CBRL,
-6.70%,
which reported before the bell. Later, Marvell Technology
MRVL,
+0.36%,
Ulta Beauty
ULTA,
+0.27%,
Dell
DELL,
+0.38%
and PagerDuty
PD,
+0.09%
will release results after the bell.

Companies in focus

• Snowflake Inc.’s
  SNOW,
  +5.38%
  stock rocketed higher after the company delivered upbeat results and an impressive forecast.
• Pure Storage
  PSTG,
  -13.92%
   was down 12% after the enterprise provider of storage services issued disappointing revenue guidance.
• Tesla Inc.
  TSLA,
  -0.29%
  shares are also worth watching as the company is scheduled to host its Cybertruck delivery event on Thursday in Austin, Texas, which is set to begin later in the day.