Stocks Pressured Despite Jobless Claims Hitting a 52-Year Low

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Key Takeaways

• Wall Street stocks finish Thursday mostly lower, Nasdaq makes a U-turn with a 1.7% drop
• Applications for unemployment benefits last week dropped to their lowest level in 52 years

What’s on Focus in the Markets?

Wall Street stocks finished Thursday’s session lower with all three major indexes sliding in the red as trading unfolded. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, for example, lost the little green it had as the session approached its closing time. As a result, the 30-stock benchmark finished virtually flat.

Also in financial markets, the broad-based S&P500 tumbled 0.7% after almost logging a new record high a day earlier. Further, the Nasdaq Composite posted the deepest loss of all three as the tech-heavy stock gauge declined 1.7%. The Nasdaq’s dip worsened during the afternoon as big tech names reversed course from Wednesday.

In detail, Tesla was among the biggest winners Wednesday as it gained 1.6%. Yesterday, however, the carmaker’s stock tumbled 6.1% as investors retreated, led by more selling of chief executive Elon Musk. The billionaire engineer sold another $963.2 million worth of stock, according to filings from Thursday.

So far, Mr. Musk has sold slightly over 10 million shares. This means he still has about 7 million to offload to complete his target of selling 10% of his Tesla holdings.

What’s New Around the Markets?

On the economic front, US weekly jobless claims plunged to their lowest level in 52 years. In other words, worker filings for unemployment benefits in the week ended Dec. 4 totaled 184,000, the lowest since September 1969.

The upbeat report released from the US Labor Department showed unemployment claims remained on their downward trajectory despite some labor-market jitters. According to economists, the solid number may be a result of the holiday season approaching.

More specifically, the decline highlights employers are keeping workers by offering higher wages and increasing benefits to fill in vacant positions. This said, there were about 11 million job openings in October. In addition, hourly private sector wages increased by 4.8% in November, compared with the same month a year ago.

What’s the Latest News on Bitcoin?

As the economic outlook remains a bit uncertain, cryptocurrency trading turned gloomy near the end of the week. On Thursday, major cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin and Ether, turned lower and snapped four straight days of winnings.

As a result, the price of bitcoin slipped about 5% to dive below $50,000 with a session low of $47,280 per coin. Presently, however, the original cryptocurrency has maintained sideways trading near $48,500.

Ether, on the other hand, dropped over 7% on Thursday to hit an intraday low of $4,070. The Ethereum token is still pressured near its recent lows as its changing hands around $4,100 apiece.

What’s Next for Traders and Investors?

Inflation data from the US today will highlight how consumer prices changed for the month of November. To this end, surging inflation in the past several months has made the US Federal Reserve nervous about an overheating economy.

The consumer price (CPI) report today will be closely watched from traders as they will be looking to open positions in forex as well as stocks and commodities. With this in mind, higher volatility is expected during the release of the inflation data.

Today’s Economic Calendar (EST times)

• 08:30 am, USD, Core CPI (MoM) (Nov)

Check our calendar right here.