The GovCon Index continued to recover lost ground from its most recent stretch of losses with a gain of 1.744 percent — or 1.265 points — to close at 71.301 on Thursday.
U.S. stocks recorded gains across the board as investors reacted to comments from Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago, who said he would not recommend an interest rate hike until 2016,  the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.84Â percent to 17, 907.87, the S&P 500 composite index gained 1.79%Â percent to 2, 062.14Â and the NASDAQ composite index increased 1.84Â percent to 4, 736.19.
Initial jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 3 fell 4, 000 to 294, 000 from the previous week and investors will watch Friday’s nonfarm jobs report from the Labor Department, according to the Journal.
Top Percentage Gainers
| Company | Stock Price | $ Change | % Change |
| Â Textron | Â 43.32 | Â 1.87 | Â 4.51% |
| Â Intelsat | Â 17.22 | Â 0.53 | Â 3.18% |
| Â Maximus | Â 54.65 | Â 1.65 | Â 3.11% |
| Â AECOM Technology | Â 30.23 | Â 0.91 | Â 3.10% |
| Â ATK | Â 118.18 | Â 3.17 | Â 2.76% |
Market Summary
| Advancing Issues | Â 27 (90.00%) |
| Declining Issues | Â Â 3 (10.00%) |
| Unchanged Issues | Â Â 0 |
The Executive Mosaic GovCon Index is a composite index that tracks 30 of the largest publicly-traded Government Contracting (GovCon) firms.
