US close: Wall Street stages massive turnaround as bank stocks surge

US stocks closed higher on Thursday on a solid performance from bank shares and climbing oil prices helped offset another dire jobless report.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.62% at 23,625.34, while the S&P 500 was 1.15% firmer at 2,852.50 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.91% stronger at 9,943.72.

The Dow closed 377.37 points higher on Thursday, reversing some of the losses recorded on Wednesday after Powell warned the coronavirus-fuelled crisis was "without modern precedent".

"While the economic response has been both timely and appropriately large, it may not be the final chapter, given that the path ahead is both highly uncertain and subject to significant downside risks," said Powell, who also stated that more needed to be done to support the US economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

While stocks spent most of the day in the red, a late rally from the likes of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo helped lift major indices back into the green, as did a 9% jump in West Texas Intermediate to over $27.50 per barrel.

Also in focus on Thursday was this week's jobless claims data, with significantly more jobs lost in the US during the previous week than economists had anticipated.

According to the Department of Labor, initial weekly unemployment claims for the week ending on 9 May came in at 2.98m - a larger slowdown than the expected 2.5m. The new claims also brought the Covid-19 crisis total to almost 36.5m over the past two months, the biggest loss in US history

In corporate news, Norwegian Cruise Line swung to a $1.88bn first-quarter loss as a result of a non-cash impairment charge of $1.6bn stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, while Cisco Systems posted stronger-than-expected resilience in its earnings report but warned that sales had declined amid coronavirus outbreak.

Elsewhere, Minneapolis Fed head Neel Kashkari warned the US economy wouldn't snap back from the coronavirus-induced blow any time soon.

"I think a V-shaped recovery is off the table," he said.

Robert Kaplan will deliver a speech at 2300 BST.