Lyft, PayPal and Uber were among the Bay Area companies to see their share prices surge Thursday as investors concentrated more upon steps being taken to re-open the economy than another grim report on unemployment claims that continue to grow during the coronavirus crisis.

Early Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department reported there were almost 3.2 million new first-time claims for unemployment benefits during the week that ended May 2. That brought the number of unemployment claims nationally to more than 33 million since President Trump declared a state of emergency around the country in March due to the spread of coronavirus.

In California, 318,000 new unemployment claims were filed last week, bringing the state’s total of new claims to 4.05 million since shelter-in-place orders went into effect almost two months ago. However, the pace of new claims slowed, as the number of claims declined slightly from those filed in the prior week.

While debates continued around California, and the country, about relaxing stay-at-home measures that have been part of the effort to control the spread of coronavirus, plans to reopen certain types of businesses have gained steam due to growing concerns about job losses and the ongoing effects of the pandemic upon the economy.

San Francisco-based ride-hailing company Lyft saw its shares surge by 23%, to $32.11, Thursday following its first-quarter results. Lyft said late Wednesday that it has seen three-straight weeks of increases in rides following a 75% dropoff in rides in April over the same month last year. Lyft said it has cut about 17% of its workforce, or about 850 jobs, furloughed another 300 people, and has cut salaries between 10% and 30% in an effort to reduce its overall expenses amid uncertainty over its ridership levels.

Lyft’s main rival, Uber, was up by 10%, at $30.55 a share, one day after the company said it would lay off 3,700 employees in response to a decline in ridership since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Uber is also scheduled to give its first-quarter report after the close of trading on Thursday.

PayPal shares rose by 13%, to $145.06, after the payments processing company reported adding 7.4 million new accounts in April as usage of its payment services grew due to people being stuck at home and having to make more of their purchases online.

Apple shares rose 1%, to $303.92, Facebook was also up by 1%, at $210.71 a share, Netflix edged up by 0.5%, to $436.49 a share, and gains also came from Intel, Twitter, Cisco Systems and HP.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged by almost 400 points, or 1.7%, to 24,060.95, and the S&P 500 climbed by 1.7%, to 2,897.79. The Nasdaq Composite Index, which includes many Bay Area tech stocks, reached its highest levels in two month, and was up  by 1.6%, at 8,992.05.