By Caitlin Ostroff, Akane Otani and Chong Koh Ping 

U.S. stocks rose Thursday ahead of the Easter holiday weekend, heading for their biggest one-week rally of the year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 285 points, or 1.2%, to 23719. The S&P 500 added 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.8%.

Markets have charged higher much of the past week, helping shares of everything from banks to manufacturers to hotel operators chip away at their losses.

The frenzied rally has stood in sharp contrast to increasingly dim news on the health of the economy.

Data Thursday showed the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits in the first week of April was 6.6 million, as swaths of the U.S. economy shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. In a report, the Congressional Budget Office said it expected U.S. unemployment to fall by more than 10% in the second quarter, despite lawmakers recently enacting stimulus measures to try to offset the pain stemming from a nationwide disruption to business.

"There's a lot of uncertainty at the moment," said Andrew Hunter, a senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics. "Everyone's been surprised at the speed and scale of the layoffs."

One reason analysts have said stocks have proved to be more resilient than expected: central bankers have stepped in to provide unprecedented levels of support for the economy. The Federal Reserve unveiled new programs Thursday to provide $2.3 trillion in lending, expanding efforts to reach small and midsize businesses, as well as cities and states. The central bank also said it would expand its corporate lending programs to riskier types of debt that had previously been excluded.

Others believe the economy will rebound in the second half of the year, given authorities' containment measures prove effective in stemming the spread of coronavirus. Nearly 85% of the economists in a Wall Street Journal survey predicted annualized growth rates of 6.2% in the third quarter, followed by 6.6% in the fourth quarter.

In the stock market, some of the sectors that have been hit hardest in the past month were among the biggest gainers.

Banks rallied, with JPMorgan Chase up 10% Thursday and Goldman Sachs Group up 4.9%. Energy shares also climbed, with Exxon Mobil rising 2.8%.

Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus infections passed 432,000 in the U.S., with fatalities climbing above 14,800. Countries around the world including Japan and Singapore reported a record number of new cases, prompting discussions about extending the lockdown measures.

The Stoxx Europe 600 finished the week up 7.4% for its best showing since 2011, while in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia's stock benchmark closed the week 6.3% higher.

Chinese and South Korean equity benchmarks ended the day higher, while Japan's Nikkei 225 was flat.

"Investors are not putting the risk of a resurgence on the top of their minds right now," said Eli Lee, head of investment strategy at Bank of Singapore. The risk of a second or subsequent wave of infections would bear watching as this could prolong containment measures, leading to a longer recession than expected, he cautioned.

On Friday, many of the world's major stock markets, including the U.S., will be closed Friday for public holidays. Markets in South Korea, mainland China and Japan will remain open for trading.

Write to Caitlin Ostroff at caitlin.ostroff@wsj.com, Akane Otani at akane.otani@wsj.com and Chong Koh Ping at chong.kohping@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 09, 2020 16:20 ET (20:20 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.