Equities benchmarks ended higher on Thursday, the last trading session in 2020 ending the year on a strong note after plunging into a bear market in February and March when the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the world economy into a deep recession has. The promise of vaccines and excessive fiscal and monetary policy assistance has contributed to boosting purchases over the past few months from the lows of the market. On Thursday, US data showed that for the first time, unemployment benefits declined unexpectedly by 19,000 to 787,000 last week. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch predicted initial claims would rise to 835,000. State-demanding unemployment claims fell by 103,000 to 5.22 million. The Dow Jones Industrial Average [: DJIA] rose nearly 200 points, or 0.7%, to around 30,606 (on a preliminary basis), which was a record of the blue-disc index, while the S&P 500 index SPX,
set its own record of the highest point and finished 0.6% to 3,756. The Nasdaq composite index just broke a record, up 0.1% at 12,888. However, the Nasdaq Composite recorded its best annual profit since 2009, at 43.6%, according to FactSet data.
