S&P 500 ALL-TIME HIGH
REUTERS/John Gress
In morning trade on Thursday, the S&P 500 was trading above 2,011.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was also at a new all-time high, trading above 17,245.
The new highs in the S&P 500 and Dow come a day after the Federal Reserve announced its latest monetary policy decision, keeping interest rates low and taking another $10 billion off its QE program.
In her press conference following the announcement, Fed Chair Janet Yellen declined to give any color on when the Fed might begin raising interest rates, though the Fed kept the language "considerable time" to describe how long might elapse between the end of QE and the first rate hike.
On Thursday morning, we also got a few pieces of conflicting economic data, with initial jobless claims falling to a 14-year low at 280,000, while housing starts widely missed expectations.
Housing starts fell 14.4% on an annualized basis, the biggest drop since April and larger than the 5.2% decline that was expected.
The latest manufacturing report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed that the diffusion index fell to 22.5 from 28.0, also missing expectations for 23.0. The report's employment subindex, however, rose to its best level since May 2011.
In stock news, pharmacy chain Rite Aid was one of the biggest losers on Thursday, falling more than 12% after cutting its fiscal-year earnings and sales outlook.
Shares of pharmaceutical company VIVUS were up more than 14% after the company received approval for a new drug to treat erectile dysfunction.
More to come ...
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