We had a strong selloff over the last few days, but it doesn't take much time to create the underpinnings for a modest rally, said Quincy Krosby, LPL Financial's chief global strategist, told CNBC on Thursday.
He added that we're back to bad news being good news.
Tech stocks took center stage Thursday, with the Nasdaq Composite forging a 123.45 points or 1.13 percent gain to 11,082. The Standard and Poor's 500 surged 29.59 points or 0.75 percent to 3,963. The Dow Jones industrials increased by 183.56 points or 0.55 percent to 33,781. The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 230,000 in the week ending December 3, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level. The moving average for the 4 week period was 230,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised average. The Labor Department reported that the previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 228,750 to 229,000.
With the unemployment data out of the way, traders are looking at the consumer price index reading next week to see how inflation is doing well.
Markets are looking like they've got a little window for a relief rally before the CPI data next week, since we were oversold here, Dennis Dick, a market structure analyst and trader at Triple D Trading, told Reuters Thursday.
You're just starting to see a lot of people coming in buying the dip. The U.S. dollar was off the boil Thursday with all major currencies making solid gains. The euro was up to 1.0559 at the close of New York on Thursday. The British pound went up to 1.2239. The Swiss franc went up to 0.9362.
The Canadian dollar went up to 135.83. The Japanese yen stayed unchanged at 136.69, ending the day unchanged at 136.69.
The FTSE 100 fell 0.23 percent on overseas equity markets in London. The German Dax was up 0.02 percent. The Paris-based CAC 40 fell by 0.20 percent.
The Hang Seng of Hong Kong gained 635 points or 3.38 percent, or 3.38 percent, to 19,450, the biggest gain on Thursday. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.07 percent in China.
The Australian All Ordinaries were deflated by 0.72 percent. The S&P NZX 50 rose 0.05 percent in New Zealand. South Korea's Kospi Composite declined by 0.49 percent.