US close: Stocks fall further ahead of nonfarm payrolls

Wall Street stocks closed weaker on Thursday as market participants continued to digest the 75-basis point rate hike from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, and looked ahead to Friday’s key nonfarm payrolls report.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.46% at 32,001.25, as the S&P 500 lost 1.06% to 3,719.89, and the Nasdaq Composite was off 1.73% at 10,342.94.

The Dow closed 146.51 points lower on Thursday, extending the losses it recorded on Wednesday after the Fed’s rate hike.

“US markets picked up where they left off yesterday, sliding sharply on the back of the continued fallout from last night’s Powell press conference and a host of earnings misses and guidance downgrades,” said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.

“Another solid set of weekly jobless claims numbers also spoke to an increasingly resilient US labour market reinforcing last night’s hawkish messaging in the process.”

Federal Reserve policymakers unanimously nodded through their fourth consecutive outsized rate hike late on Wednesday, adding 0.75% to its interest rate target, taking it to between 3.75% and 4% - the highest in 15 years.

The central bank did indicate it would monitor any possible economic damage the rate rises could have in what it termed a "lag".

However, chair Jerome Powell said it was still "very premature" to discuss a pause in rate hikes, adding that given there were often long lags for the effects of monetary policy changes to be seen, the Fed might not wait for inflation to normalise completely before pausing its tightening.

On the economic front, America's shortfall on trade with the rest of the world rose unexpectedly at the end of the third quarter.

According to the Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms, the foreign trade deficit on goods and services jumped at a month-on-month pace of 11.6% to -$73.3bn.

Elsewhere, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 1,000 to 217,000 in the week ended 29 October, according to the Labor Department, below forecasts for a print of 220,000 and pointing to ongoing tight labour market conditions.

On another note, the S&P Global services PMI contracted to 48.8 in October, slipping below the 50.0 threshold, while the composite PMI came in slightly better than expectations for a reading of 47.3 at 48.2 but down from the prior month's print of 49.5.

Still on data, activity in America's services sector grew a tad less quickly than anticipated in October, the results of a closely followed survey revealed, but price pressures grew.

The Institute for Supply Management's services sector Purchasing Managers' Index slipped from a reading of 56.7 for September to 54.4 in October

Turning to factory orders, new orders for manufactured goods rose by 0.3% in September, according to the Census Bureau, picking up from the revised 0.2% uptick in the prior month and in line with market expectations.

Finally, US nonfarm labour productivity and unit labour costs were a tad better behaved than expected during the third quarter.

According to the Department of Labor, the former increased at a quarterly annualised pace of 0.3% over the three months to September

In equities, Qualcomm lost 7.66% and Roku was off 4.57% after they both issued disappointing quarterly results and forward guidance.

Vaccine producer Moderna slipped 0.75% on the back of a weak Covid-19 vaccine sales outlook.

On the upside, Zillow Group was ahead 10.54% after beating expectations on quarterly earnings, although the real estate marketing platform flagged lower fourth quarter revenue amid a volatile property market.

Under Armour jumped 11.97% after it beat estimates for both earnings and revenue, while Peloton Interactive recovered 8.23%, having tumbled almost 20% in pre-market action after it forecast much lower holiday season sales than analysts had been hoping for.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com. Additional reporting by Iain Gilbert.

Dow Jones - Risers

Boeing Co. (BA) $156.75 6.34%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $219.26 2.20%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $181.16 1.47%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $272.94 0.95%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $127.20 0.18%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $170.72 0.17%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $90.40 0.11%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $543.61 0.03%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $0.00 0.00%
Honeywell International Inc. (HON) $0.00 0.00%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Apple Inc. (AAPL) $138.88 -4.24%
Visa Inc. (V) $194.75 -3.09%
American Express Co. (AXP) $139.31 -2.92%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $214.25 -2.66%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $99.25 -2.52%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $281.50 -2.50%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $146.33 -2.45%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $134.47 -1.72%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $43.85 -1.62%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $37.14 -1.49%

S&P 500 - Risers

Under Armour Inc. Class A (UAA) $7.95 11.97%
Under Armour, Inc. (UA) $6.91 10.56%
FMC Technologies Inc. (FTI) $11.44 8.85%
Royal Caribbean Cr (RCL) $53.77 8.28%
Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (APD) $263.97 7.69%
Apache Corp. (APA) $47.29 6.89%
Ball Corp (BALL) $51.13 6.65%
Equinix, Inc. (EQIX) $585.35 6.57%
Boeing Co. (BA) $156.75 6.34%
ConocoPhillips (COP) $133.82 5.78%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Lincoln National Corp. (LNC) $34.83 -33.15%
Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS) $57.18 -28.05%
CenturyLink Inc. (LUMN) $5.79 -17.73%
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) $51.96 -13.77%
Fortinet Inc. (FTNT) $45.93 -13.71%
Global Payments Inc. (GPN) $94.34 -12.31%
Zoetis Inc (ZTS) $131.14 -11.01%
MGM Resorts International (MGM) $31.41 -10.54%
Dxc Technology Company (DXC) $25.72 -8.70%
Kellogg Co. (K) $69.51 -8.32%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Trip.com Group Limited (TCOM) $26.52 4.00%
Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) $1,825.73 2.67%
Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $870.88 2.30%
Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. (ULTA) $415.64 2.18%
Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) $79.46 2.03%
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $38.82 2.00%
Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC) $71.05 1.97%
Dollar Tree Inc (DLTR) $156.00 1.83%
CSX Corp. (CSX) $29.00 1.65%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $134.21 1.53%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) $51.96 -13.77%
QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) $103.88 -7.66%
Fiserv Inc. (FISV) $94.57 -5.96%
Dish Network Corp. (DISH) $13.72 -5.70%
Intuit Inc. (INTU) $364.99 -5.20%
Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) $285.93 -5.08%
DENTSPLY Sirona Inc. (XRAY) $26.83 -4.79%
Marriott International - Class A (MAR) $146.48 -4.26%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $138.88 -4.24%
Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG) $83.49 -4.11%