Asia-Pacific markets set to trade higher after Wall Street rebounds

All of the major averages ended higher on Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 345.09 points, or 1.05%. The S&P 500 gained 1.75% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.59% to 10,478.09.

— Tanaya Macheel

The turmoil around Elon Musk and weakness in the electric vehicle market could limit Tesla’s near-term upside, but the company is still in a strong position, according to Morgan Stanley.

Analyst Adam Jonas cut his price target on the automaker’s stock but maintained his overweight rating, saying that Tesla could “widen its lead” during a period of soft demand for electric vehicles.

Check out more of the call on CNBC Pro.

— Jesse Pound

Jobless claims increased last week amid Federal Reserve efforts to cool the economy and in particular the labor market.

First-time filings for unemployment benefits totaled 225,000 for the week ended Dec. 24, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That was an increase of 9,000 from the previous week and slightly above the 223,000 estimate from Dow Jones.

Longer-term, continuing claims, which run a week behind the headline number, jumped to 1.71 million, an increase of 41,000 to the highest level since early February.

The numbers this time of year are always noisy due to the holidays. Claims not adjusted for seasonal factors surged by 23,146, a 9.3% increase.

—Jeff Cox