NEW YORK — Investors can’t seem to get the stock-market rally back up to full speed again.
Stocks closed mostly higher but down from their highs of the day Thursday after three straight days of losses. Investors piled back into financial and health-care companies and moved out of industries such as technology that had been leading the market.
Several upbeat economic reports encouraged investors after a slide earlier this week that dragged the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index down 3.8 percent. Investors also sold Treasurys, feeling less need for the safety of government debt because of the signs of economic improvement.
A private research group said its forecast of economic activity rose more than expected in May, marking a second straight gain after seven months of declines.
And the government said the overall number of people drawing unemployment benefits fell last week for the first time since early January.
Separately, the Philadelphia Reserve Bank said manufacturing activity picked up in the mid-Atlantic region.
The reports helped reassure investors that a recovery is still emerging. But analysts caution there may still be more air to be let out of the market’s huge advance since early March, which added 40 percent to the S&P 500. “I don’t think that this rally is sustainable,” Christiana Bank & Trust’s Scott Armiger said of Thursday’s move. “I still think we have to give up a little bit more.”
The Dow Jones rose 58.42, or 0.7 percent, to 8,555.60, their biggest one-day gain in two weeks. The Dow had been up 98 points. The S&P 500 rose 7.66, or 0.8 percent, to 918.37, while the Nasdaq composite index slipped 0.34, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,807.72.
