The stock benchmarks ended on Thursday, the last trading session of 2020, which ended the year on a strong note after entering a urinary market in February and March as the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the global economy into -a deep recession. The promise of vaccines and the oversizing of fiscal and monetary aid has helped encourage buying in the last few months since March market lows. On Thursday, US data showed that claims for unemployment benefits for the first time fell unexpectedly by 19,000 to 787,000 last week. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had predicted initial claims to rise to 835,000. Demand for the state, which continues to lose jobs, fell by 103,000 to 5.22 million. Dow Jones Industrial Average [: DJIA] rose nearly 200 points, or 0.7%, to 30,606 (on a preliminary basis), setting a record for the blue-chip index, while the S&P 500 SPX,
recorded a record closing close, reaching 0.6% to 3,756. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed at just one record, up 0.1% from 12,888. However, the Nasdaq Composite posted its best annual gain in 2009, up 43.6%, according to FactSet data.