Bank stocks and the broader markets rose Thursday on encouraging economic news.
The KBW Bank Index rose 2.53%, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.69% and the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.85%.
The Labor Department said that the number of initial unemployment claims for the week that ended Aug. 29 fell less than 1%, to 570,000. Economists on average had expected 560,000 claims. However, stocks spiked in the last hour of trading in anticipation of the government's August unemployment report, due Friday.
The Institute for Supply Management, meanwhile, said its service index rose from 46.4 in July to 48.4 in August. Economists on average had expected the number to be 48.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. rose 3.1%, Bank of America Corp. rose 3.5%, Wells Fargo & Co. rose 3.1%, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. rose 1.3%, U.S. Bancorp rose 1.4% and Citigroup Inc. rose 21 cents, to $4.77.
Among the regionals, SunTrust Banks Inc. rose 2.7%, Capital One Financial Corp. rose 1.5%, BB&T Corp. rose 1%, KeyCorp rose 2.2%, Fifth Third Bancorp rose 4.7%, Comerica Inc. rose 2.1%, Marshall & Ilsley Corp. rose 4.8%, First Horizon National Corp. rose 3% and Zions Bancorp. rose 0.7%.
