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Stocks climb as pandemic winners pull away on Wall Street

Stocks climb as pandemic winners pull away on Wall Street
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Stocks rose on Thursday, with the heaviest lifting coming from Amazon, health care stocks and the few other pockets of the market that have managed to be winners in the coronavirus crunch.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% after a government report showed that 5.2 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as layoffs continue to sweep the nation. It was an awful number, but markets were expecting even worse, which helped to limit the losses.

Momentum picked up in the last few minutes of trading after the White House released guidelines outlining a phased approach to reopening businesses.