US stocks were mixed at Thursday’s open after two days of dramatic gains to open the quarter fell through.
The S&P 500 is down 0.1% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 90 points (0.3%). Tech-focused Nasdaq Composite was an outlier, up just 0.2%.
The early move Thursday came after new data from the Labor Department showed a surge in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time last week. surged to 219,000, the lowest level since April last week at 193,000. Economists sought 203,000 claims, according to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, in the fixed income market, US Treasury yields edged higher, with the benchmark 10-year note surpassing 3.77% and the rate-sensitive 2-year yield at 4.17%.
On the commodity front, US crude futures held off more than 10% on Wednesday after OPEC+ approved a production cut of 2 million barrels a day, the biggest since 2020.
Andrew Lipow, president of Ripaw Oil Associates, told Yahoo Finance Live on Wednesday, “These higher oil prices are certainly preventing gasoline prices from continuing their seasonal decline over the winter. ‘ said. “Gas pump consumers will already be affected in the coming weeks.”
Optimism that recent economic data, reflecting a faster-than-expected drop in job openings and a sharp drop in manufacturing activity, could lead the Federal Reserve to turn to a plan to tighten policy sooner than expected. But many on Wall Street remain skeptical that the data is sufficiently muted. Convince the authorities to scale back rate hikes.
On Tuesday, investors cheered the Labor Department’s Jobs and Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which showed vacancies fell from 1.1 million to 10.1 million in the last business day of August. However, the US economy added 208,000 more jobs in September than expected, according to the ADP’s Private Employment Report, continuing the surprise upward trend for labor market data.
“Ahead of this Friday’s NFP and next Wednesday’s CPI, markets are teetering between narratives of ‘hawkish Fed’ and ‘Fed pivot’,” says JP Morgan analysts said in a note on Thursday, including ADP’s Jobs Reading, who added other data points, saying that “the economy is proving to be still strong, thus weakening hopes of a near-term turnaround from the Fed.” ing”.
The Labor Department’s September jobs report, which comes out Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, will be the most important announcement for investors. Economists expect nonfarm payrolls to rise by 260,000 last month, according to Bloomberg’s latest estimates.
“Equity bulls will need about $100,000 to see the market change their Fed expectations,” JP Morgan said.
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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. follow her on her twitter @alexandraandnyc
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