In the week ending July 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance was 254,000, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised level of 254,000, the Labor Department reported. The four-week moving average was 259,000, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 264,750.

Thursday, the Dow climbed 134.29 points (0.73%) to 18,506.41, the NASDAQ closed 28.33 points (0.57%) higher at 5,034.06, and the S&P 500 increased 11.31 points (0.53%) to 2,163.74. The Russell 2000 was up 1.01 points (0.08%) at 1,202.17, and the Wilshire 5000 gained 90.76 points (0.41%) to finish at 22,385.83.

On the NYSE, 3.1 billion shares traded, with 1.3 advancing issues for every declining issue. On the NASDAQ, 2.7 billion shares changed hands, with a slight lead for advancers.

ON THIS DATE: In 1870, Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union. In 1876, George Washington Bradley of St. Louis pitched the first no-hitter in baseball in a 2-0 win over Hartford. In 1885, in New York, the Niagara Reservation State Park opened. In 1904, the first Buddhist temple in the U.S. was established in Los Angeles. In 1916, in Seattle, Washington, Pacific Aero Products was incorporated by William Boeing. The company was later renamed Boeing Co. In 1965, the spacecraft Mariner IV sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet Mars. In 1968, commercial air travel began between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., when the first plane, a Soviet Aeroflot jet, landed at Kennedy International Airport in New York. In 2006, the social networking service Twitter was launched.

In Guelph, Ontario, Canada, a police officer saw what looked like a bicycle light heading northbound on a street, but as the light approached, the officer realized the light was coming from inside a motor vehicle. The vehicle was speeding, and as it passed the police cruiser, the officer noted it had no working exterior lights. According to CBC News, the officer stopped the car and “found the driver to be wearing an LED headlamp on his forehead,” police said.                            

In Vista, California, a sheriff tried to pull over a driver for a minor traffic violation, but instead of stopping, the driving kept going. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the driver meandered through the city for nearly 20 minutes before stopping in the jail parking lot. He ran from the car and clambered over a fence into the jail intake area, where prisoners are driven in for booking, a sheriff’s official said. Easy arrest.

In Chongqing, China, a man met a woman online and found out she has a great admiration for policemen. To impress her, he took her to the local police station, saying he was the police chief. According to the Shanghaiist, before the policeman on duty had a chance to ask who he was, the man said, “Brother, you don’t know your new police chief? Must be because I was only transferred here last week. I’ve been training elsewhere, and haven’t met everyone here yet.” He then asked the policeman to bring his guest a cup of water, and declared that there will be a meeting that night during which he will introduce himself to everyone. The policeman he talked to thought this was odd, so he asked his group leader about this change in leadership, who assured him that there was none. Realizing that there was a fraud in their midst, he detained the imposter, who quickly admitted to his crime.