Equity indexes ended higher on Thursday, the last trading session of 2020 to end the year on a strong note after entering a bearish market in February and March during the COVID-19 pandemic launched the world economy into a deep recession. The promise of vaccines and large fiscal and monetary policy aid helped boost buying in recent months from market lows in March. On Thursday, U.S. data showed that claims for unemployment benefits for the first time fell unexpectedly between 19,000 and 787,000 last week. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had predicted that initial claims would rise to 835,000. Continued state claims for unemployment fell from 103,000 to 5.22 million. The Dow Jones industrial average [: DJIA] rose nearly 200 points, or 0.7%, to end at around 30,606 (preliminary), marking a record close to the blue chip index, while the S&P 500 SPX index,
reached its own record closing the high, finishing 0.6% to 3,756. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed a record, up 0.1%, at 12,888. However, the Nasdaq Composite recorded its best annual gain since 2009, up 43.6%, according to FactSet data.