Wall Street Rockets, Seeking to Build on Gains

U.S. stocks rose on Thursday as Wall Street looked to extend a modest winning streak.

The Dow Jones Industrials gained 156.67 points to 31,194.35.

The S&P 500 strengthened 31.86 points to 3,876.94. The S&P 500, which sits about 20% off its record high, is looking for its first four-day winning streak since late March.

The NASDAQ Composite jumped 154.89 points, or 1.3%, to 11,516.74.

Energy stocks were leading the gains on Thursday, reversing some recent losses as oil prices rebounded. Chevron rose 2.5%, while Exxon jumped more than 3%.

Freeport-McMoRan surged 6.6% and Nucor rose 5%, as commodity stocks climbed.

Chipmakers were higher in early trading after South Korea’s Samsung posted an 11% jump in profit and 21% surge in revenue for the latest period on strong sales of memory chips. Shares of AMD gathered 4% and Nvidia gained 3%.

Another notable early mover was GameStop, which popped 10% after the video game retailer said a four-for-one stock split was approved by its board.

On the economic front, initial jobless claims and continuing claims both ticked up slightly last week. The U.S. trade deficit for May came in slightly higher than expected at $85.5 billion but was still down month over month.

The U.S. Labor Department’s official jobs report is due out on Friday.

Treasury prices dropped, bringing yields up to 2.97% from Wednesday’s 2.92%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices regained $4.74 to $103.27 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices moved upward $9.90 to $1,746.70 U.S. an ounce.