Business Notes: Investors Optimistic After Good Day On Wall Street

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- In today's Business Notes, traders are optimistic.

That is what happened on Wall Street on Monday as the Dow was up by more than 1,600 points and the other two major indices posted triple-digit gains.

Investors were more optimistic after indications that social distancing and stay-at-home orders may indeed be working with a leveling of the number of coronavirus cases and deaths, especially in Europe.

And that kind of news can't come soon enough for corporations, small businesses, and workers.

Early indications are 283,000 more Pennsylvanians filed for unemployment last week.

That means that since mid-March and into the first three days of April, more than a million jobless claims were filed in the state.

If there is a bright spot, it is that the projected number of claims filed last week was down about one-third from the previous week.

While businesses have had to close, grocery stores have seen an influx of customers, and that is leading to some shortages.

One of those shortages is eggs. The demand has been so great that wholesale egg prices have more than tripled.

Once again, it was a good day on Wall Street.

Here are the day's closing numbers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a gain of more than 1,600 points, or 7 and three-quarters percent.

The NASDAQ was up a solid 540 points, or 7 and one-third percent.

And the S&P 500 gained 175 points or 7 percent.