Thursday’s Stock Market Open: US Equities Mixed Despite Better Than Expected Jobless Claims Data

Update: 12:05 p.m. EDT:

U.S. stocks dropped as of Thursday noon.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 380.58 points to 25,686.70, while the S&P 500 fell 33.08 points to 3,136.86 and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 41.53 points to 10,450.97.

In Europe markets finished lower, as Britain’s FTSE-100 dropped 1.73%, while France’s CAC-40 fell 1.21% and Germany’s DAX slipped 0.04%.

Crude oil futures dropped 2.59% at $39.84 per barrel, Brent crude slipped 0.72% at $42.57.

The Commerce Department said on Thursday that wholesale inventories slipped 1.2% in May, after gaining 0.2% in April.

Original story:

U.S. stocks opened mixed on Thursday as initial jobless claims figures were somewhat milder than expected, although covid-19 infections continue to spike.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 3.12 points to 26,064.16, while the S&P 500 rose 7.59 points to 3,177.53 and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 82.63 points to 10,575.13.

About 1.314 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance benefits last week, below expectations of 1.39 million, and a decrease of 99,000 from the prior week. Continuing claims dropped to 18 million from about 18.7 million.

Joe Weisenthal of Bloomberg TV tweeted the numbers were “still incredibly high, but jobless claims [continue] to decline sequentially. And this week they also came in slightly better than expectations.”

But Democratic Congressman Don Beyer of Virginia took a dimmer view of the jobless claims data. “New jobless claims surpass 1 million for 16th week in a row,” he tweeted. “More new jobless claims last week than any week of the Great Recession. The highest unemployment rate in 80 years. Expanded [unemployment insurance] benefits set to expire in 22 days, making things much worse. [Republican Senator Mitch] McConnell refuses to act.”

Christopher Dembik, head of macro research at Saxobank, said of the data: “Initial jobless claims in America's four largest state economies that represent roughly 1/3 of [U.S. gross domestic product] are still at a very high level, at 548,159 [as of July 4]. Recovery of the labor market will be very slow and depend on the evolution of the health crisis.”

Almost 63,000 new covid-19 infections – a new record -- were confirmed in the U.S. on Wednesday, including nearly 10,000 in Texas and about 11,700 in California. The total number of cases has now passed 3 million in the U.S.

“Risk is bouncing back broadly in equities but the real show is in Chinese equities, U.S. technology stocks and then gold,” said Steen Jakobsen, chief investment officer at Saxo Bank. “U.S. Covid-19 cases rose yesterday to a new record and signs are now emerging that daily deaths are on the rise nationally which could suddenly become a new risk factor for the market.”

Overnight in Asia markets finished higher, as China’s Shanghai Composite index advanced 1.39%; Japan’s Nikkei-225 rose 0.4%; and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng exchange climbed 0.31%.

In Europe markets traded mixed, as Britain’s FTSE-100 slipped 0.5%, while France’s CAC-40 edged up 0.28% and Germany’s DAX rose 1.49%.

Crude oil futures fell 0.81% at $40.57 per barrel, Brent crude slipped 0.21% at $43.20. Gold futures edged up 0.05%.