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Stocks open 2% higher after Senate passes virus relief bill

Stocks are opening broadly higher on Wall Street
Posted at 7:59 AM, Mar 26, 2020
and last updated 2020-03-26 09:59:59-04

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks opened broadly higher on Wall Street Thursday after the Senate approved a $2.2 trillion bill to provide economic relief for damage done by the coronavirus outbreak.

Major indexes were up more than 2% in early trading Thursday, following their first back-to-back gains since a dramatic sell-off took hold of markets five weeks ago.

Investors were relieved that a massive surge in unemployment applications, despite busting records at 3.3 million, fell short of the worst forecasts.

The outbreak has happened so suddenly that the jobless report is one of the first points of data showing how much economic pain it’s creating.