US close: Stocks end session in the red following hotter than expected jobless claims print

dl nyse new york stock exchange wall st street city finance dow jones nasdaq sp finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america 2 — New York Stock ExchangeSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks closed lower on Thursday after this week's jobless claims figures came in hotter than expected.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.89% at 34,715.39, while the S&P 500 was 1.10% weaker at 4,482.73 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.30% softer at 14,154.02.

The Dow closed 313.26 points lower on Thursday, extending losses recorded in the previous session.

Bond yields were firmly in focus again on Thursday, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note hovering at around 1.782%, while the two-year, the note most closely tied to Federal Reserve rate policy, most recently yielded about 1.012%.

On the macro front, Americans made first-time unemployment benefit claims at a higher than expected clip last week, driven by an increased number of Covid-19 cases that disrupted business activity across the nation.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose from 231,000 to a seasonally adjusted rate of 286,000 in the week ended 15 January, according to the Labor Department, ahead of forecasts for a print of 220,000 as the United States reports an average of 732,245 new coronavirus infections per day, according to a Reuters analysis of official data, in a winter surge driven by the Omicron variant.

Elsewhere, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's manufacturing index rose to 23.2 in January, up from 20.0 in December and ahead of expectations for a flat reading as the new orders index rose to 17.9 from 13.7 and the prices paid index increased to 72.5 from 66.1.

Lastly, US existing home sales fell in December as higher prices and record low inventory levels shut out first-time buyers. Existing home sales dropped 4.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.18m last month, according to the National Association of Realtors, with sales falling across all regions. Economists were expecting sales to have fallen to 6.44m units.

In the corporate space, United Airlines shares were in the red after the firm warned in its quarterly results that the Covid-19 Omicron variant had impacted bookings and would hold back its recovery from the pandemic.

Dow Jones - Risers

Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $165.18 3.19%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $348.10 0.22%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $463.56 0.10%
Honeywell International Inc. (HON) $230.94 0.00%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $162.04 0.00%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $30.52 0.00%
Visa Inc. (V) $214.57 -0.15%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $53.40 -0.19%
American Express Co. (AXP) $160.44 -0.29%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $128.45 -0.36%