While the day started lower following the jobless claims figures, the Dow Jones closed up 1.17% to 25,744.71 points.
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Wall Street finished higher on Thursday thanks to a rebound at the end of the session and the good health of bank stocks, which welcomed the decision of several regulators to relax a rule against speculation by financial organizations.
Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.18% to 25,745.60 points.
The Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, rose by 1.09% to 10,017.00 points.
The S&P 500 index rose 1.10% to 3,083.76 points.
“Financial stocks have received a boost following approval by US regulators to loosen restrictions on the Volcker rule, strengthening the sector’s transactions with private equity and hedge funds”, note the Charles Schwab analysts.
In a joint statement, five federal regulators, including the Central Bank (the Fed) and the US stock market policeman (the SEC), announced changes to the famous “Volcker rule”, named after the former central banker and advisor to the President Obama, Paul Volcker, disappeared in December.
Adopted in 2013 by the Obama administration, this rule aims to prevent banks from taking risky positions, prohibiting them from trading in the short term with their own funds.
The new provisions, which will take effect from October 1, include, among other things, making it easier for banking institutions to participate in investment funds, in particular venture capital funds, bond funds or wealth management funds.
The titles of JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley gained between 3.5% to 5% on the New York market.
The Federal Reserve must also publish a report on the health of the American banking sector, which will be closely followed by investors.
Wall Street had however started the session in the red after figures of new unemployment benefit claims in the United States mixed.
According to the Labor Department, the United States had 1.48 million new jobless claims last week.
Down from the revised number of the previous week, this level is however higher than analysts’ expectations, which expected 1.25 million new requests.
The market also remains concerned about the alarming surge of contamination in the United States, especially in the south of the country.
In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott suspended the deconfinement process on Thursday as the 5,000 new case mark was crossed two days in a row and hospitalizations more than doubled in two weeks.
On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the American debt rose a little, settling at 0.6839% around 20.20 GMT against 0.6790% on Wednesday evening.
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