Wall Street stocks were in the red early on Thursday following a three-day rally for major indices.
As of 1530 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.23% at 35,673.60, while the S&P 500 was 0.45% weaker at 4,679.82 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.80% softer at 15,661.01.
The Dow opened 81.15 points lower on Thursday, reversing gains recorded in the previous session as fears surrounding the Covid-19 omicron variant faded.
Stocks were trading lower early on Thursday as market participants digested this week’s jobless claims data from the Labor Department, which revealed initial jobless claims fell to a 52-year low in the week ended 4 December as the US jobs market continued to climb out of its Covid-19 pandemic-fuelled hole.
First-time filings for unemployment came to 184,000 for the week, their lowest print since September of 1969 and better than the 211,000 expected by economists. Continuing claims increased by 38,000 to just shy of 2.0m, while the four-week moving average for continuing claims dropped to 2.03m, a decline of 54,250.
Investors were also looking ahead to tomorrow, with all-important inflation news coming in the form of November’s consumer price index on Friday.
Economists expect the Federal Reserve to react to a burst in inflation by beginning to pull back on economic aid, with the first step being accelerating the reduction in its monthly bond-buying programme, doubling the taper to $30.0bn in a move that could potentially pave the way for interest rate hikes as soon as Spring 2022.
Elsewhere on the macro front, data from the Census Bureau revealed that US wholesale inventories grew 2.3% in October to $759.4bn, up from September’s revised 1.4% increase to $742.2bn.
In the corporate space, Hormel Foods reported fourth-quarter sales and earnings growth as the US food services sector recovered throughout the period, while Costco will publish earnings shortly and Lululemon Athletica will report after the close.
