Wall Street climbs as market confidence overcome negative data

 The Wall Street rose on Thursday as confidence overcome negative data. But Standard & Poor's 500 has still declined 3.2 percent in May so far, cutting its year-to- date advance to 5 percent.

On the economic front, according to the Commerce Department, the U.S. economy expanded at 1.8 percent in the first quarter, the same with last estimate, but most investors were expecting a higher reading of 2.1 percent.

Meanwhile, data showed more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the first increase in three weeks, the latest evidence that the jobs market is still facing headwinds.

The Labor Department said before the opening bell that initial jobless claims rose to 424,000 from a revised 414,000, while the department said it might reflect the impact of extreme weather.

Although the market was up on Thursday, investors were still concerned about the economic outlook. Not only because of the Commerce Department's first quarter data but also because Goldman Sachs cut its year-end target for the S&P 500 to 1,450 from 1,500. The 500 points cut was the highest cut among those investment banks' estimates.

Moreover, the fact that investors worried about European debt crisis may have negative impact on the ongoing U.S. economic recovery.

But analysts still felt positive toward the market trend.

"We believe a tug of war is emerging in the U.S. equity market, whereby strong corporate EPS news, increasing M&A and IPO activity and rising dividend payouts and share buybacks are being offset by increasingly sluggish U.S. economic data, European sovereign headline risk, and worries that tightening global monetary policy from Washington to Beijing threatens to slow worldwide economic growth, stalling the equity rally," Alec Young, equity strategist of S&P Equity Research told Xinhua.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which was on its 115-year anniversary Thursday, added 8.10 points, or 0.07 percent, to 12, 402.76. The S&P 500 was up 5.22 points, or 0.40 percent, to 1,325. 69. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 21.54 points, or 0.78 percent, to 2,782.92.

Posted in: Wall Street climbs as market confidence overcome negative data