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WALL STREET GREETS 2025 WITH GAINS

Wall Street's major indexes kicked off 2025 trading with a little pep in their step. Possibly Wednesday's market close strengthened their resolve to do better after the S&P 500 .SPX and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC ended the last four sessions of 2024 in the dumps and the Dow Industrial Average .DJI ended the year with three straight days of declines.

All three indexes are higher on the day even as Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist for LPL Financial in Charlotte, NC, wrote that initial unemployment claims at an 8-month low "will suppress probabilities of several rate cuts from the Fed this new year."

But Gene Goldman, Chief Investment Officer at Cetera Investment Management was wary of attributing Thursday's market moves to the jobless claims, which "can be unpredictable and volatile because its harder for people to file" around holidays.

"There's really no news. Investors are jumping in after four straight sessions of losses to take advantage of lower prices. The slight pull back in bond yields is also helpful," said Goldman in a telephone interview, also noting that volume may be thin as some market participants were likely still on vacation.

Among the S&P's 11 major industry sectors, energy .SPNY, up more than 1.5%, is the biggest gainer. Consumer discretionary .SPLRCD is off the most, though down only around 0.4%.

Discretionary is under pressure from an 5% decline in shares of Tesla TSLA.O, which reported its first decline in annual deliveries as the automaker handed over fewer-than-expected electric vehicles in the fourth quarter and incentives failed to boost demand for its aging line-up.

Here is your snapshot from roughly 10:28 a.m ET/ 1528 GMT:

(Sinéad Carew)

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FOR THURSDAY'S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:

NASDAQ COMPOSITE ENTERS THE NEW YEAR ON THE BACK FOOT - CLICK HERE

EUROPEAN LIGHT VEHICLE SALES GROWTH TO UNDERPERFORM IN 2025 - BOFA - CLICK HERE

EUROPEAN EQUITIES STRUGGLING FOR DIRECTION - CLICK HERE

EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: FUTURES SIGNAL POSITIVE START TO 2025 - CLICK HERE

MARKETS USHER IN 2025 WITH TRUMP TREPIDATION - CLICK HERE