Nasdaq leads US stock gains ahead of today’s session

There were 184,000 US Initial Jobless Claims in the week ending on 16 April, the latest data released by the US Department of Labour showed on Thursday, a tad above the expected decline to 180,000 from 186,000 a week earlier. That meant the four-week average number of initial claims rose to 177,250 in the week ending on 16 April from 172,750 a week earlier.