us stocks booked another sharp gain on thursday extending a rally that kicked off in earnest on wednesday after the federal reserve offered no surprises signaling that it is on track to start scaling back bond purchases this year and perhaps raise interest rates next year assuming a continued economic recovery from the pandemic the dow jones industrial average djia registered a 15 gain or about 506 points on thursday to close at around 34764 representing its best daily gain since july 20 and marking the first backtoback gains of at least 1 or 338 points for the bluechip index since may 14 according to dow jones market data the sp 500 index spx rose 12 on the session marking its best day since july 20 and its sharpest twoday advance since march 8 after a roughly 1 gain on wednesday the nasdaq composite index comp also notched a successive 1 advance to close around 15052 it was the third straight gain for the technologyladen index representing its longest string of gains since the foursession streak ended sept 7 meanwhile investors were awaiting a quarterly update from nike inc nke  in us economic data thursday the labor department said initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 16000 to 351000 in the week ended sept 18 economists polled by the wall street journal had estimated new claims would total 320000 the rise appeared to be driven in party by california catching up on a large backlog of claims privatesector activity in the us economy continued to expand but at a slower pace september according to the ihs markit flash us composite output index which fell to a 12month low of 545 down from 554 in august a reading above 50 indicates an expansion in activity the conference board said its leading economic index rose 09 in august to 1171