Global Stocks: Wall Street up, Nikkei moderately retreats after surpassing the 20,000 points mark

U.S. stocks traded higher on Thursday with the focus on the upcoming earnings season. The nergy sector rebounded together with the price of oil. The S&P 500 closed +0.45% with a final quote of 2,091.18 points. The DOW JONES index added +0.31%, closing at 17,958.73 points. Yesterday's data showed that the number of initial jobless claims in the week ending April 04 in the U.S. rose by 14,000 to 281,000 from 267,000 in the previous week. The previous week's figure was revised up from 268,000. Analysts had expected the number of initial jobless claims to increase to 271,000.Wholesale inventories in the U.S. rose 0.3% in February, missing expectations for a 0.1% gain

Chinese stocks are trading higher on hopes on further stimulus measures by the Chinese government. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is trading +0.43% at 27,061.56 points. China's Shanghai Composite is currently trading at 4,017.96 points +1.53%, a fifth straight week of gains. On Wednesday the index surpassed the 4,000 points mark for the first time since 2008, doubling since January 2014. Early in the day Chinese CPI and PPI data for the month of March was reported. Year on year the PPI declined by -4.6%, slightly less than the predicted -4.7% and less than the previous reading of -4.8%. The consumer price inflation in March remained unchanged with a reading of +1.4%. Analyst expected a CPI reading of 1.3%.

The Nikkei moderately declined after setting a new 15-year high on Friday and trading above the 20,000 points mark. The index declined on profit taking -0.15% and closed at 19,907.63 points.