Wall Street Muted After First-Time Claims Data
On Thursday, stocks on Wall Street were muted fashion after the release of data that indicated the labor market was cooling, while tech heavyweight Nvidia continued to gain.
The NASDAQ Composite rose 40 points, or 0.2%, the S&P 500 rose 5 points, or 0.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded unchanged.
Earlier in the session, data showed that the number of Americans filing for initial unemployment benefits last week increased by more than expected, rising 229K, up from the upwardly revised total of 221K in the previous week. Economists had anticipated the figure to be 220K.
The U.S. labor market has lately shown signs of cooling, and Wednesday’s data showed that in May private payrolls rose at a slower-than-expected rate, after a soft jobs openings report the prior day.
On Friday, the monthly payrolls report will be released, and economists expect the U.S. economy to have added 185K jobs, a slight rise from the previous month.
Traders have increased bets that the Federal Reserve will reduce rates by 0.25% in Sept.
On Wednesday, the main indices gained and Nvidia provided the biggest boost to the NASDAQ and the Composite S&P 500, which both closed at record peaks.
On Thursday, Nvidia stock gained 1.3% and it crossed $3T in valuation.