US close: Stocks lower as Nasdaq extends slide another session

dl nyse new york stock exchange new york city nyc wall street wall st nasdaq markets trading finance unsplash — Sharecast / David Vives via Unsplash

Major indices were in the red at the close of trading on Thursday following a heavy tech selloff in the previous session that saw the Nasdaq Composite deliver its worst daily performance since December 2022.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.29% at 40,665.02, while the S&P 500 lost 0.78% to 5,554.59 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.70% weaker at 17,871.22.

The Dow closed 533.06 points lower on Thursday, reversing much of yesterday's gains.

As far as Thursday's headlines were concerned, Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at an accelerated pace in the week ended 13 July, according to the Labor Department, which said initial jobless claims rose by 20,000 to 243,000, above market expectations for a print of 230,000 to register a fresh weekly high. Continuing claims increased by 20,000 to 1.86m, while the four-week moving average, which aims to strip out week-to-week volatility, increased by 1,000 to 234,750.

Elsewhere on the macro front, manufacturing activity in Philadelphia rose to a three-month high in July, with new orders and shipments rising to their highest levels in more than two years, according to data released by the region's Federal Reserve Bank on Thursday. The index for general activity in July's Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey increased to 13.9 this month with 39% of firms reporting growth in activity, compared with 25% reporting decreases and 29% experiencing no change.

In the corporate space, Discover Financial traded higher following Q2 results that topped expectations, while Beyond Meat was sharply lower on reports that the meat replacement business was set to meet with bondholders to kick off talks regarding a restructuring of its balance sheet.

Domino's Pizza shares slumped on the back of quarterly sales that fell short of expectations, while DR Horton beat earnings expectations and announced a $4.0bn stock buyback and Snap-On topped earnings estimates but fell short on revenues.

Finally, Netflix shares headed south despite the streaming giant beating estimates on both the top and bottom lines as ad-supported memberships rose by shot up during Q2.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $48.03 1.08%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $162.17 0.46%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $42.07 0.10%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $0.00 0.00%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $65.19 -0.03%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $220.60 -0.09%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $330.97 -0.22%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $70.82 -0.30%
American Express Co. (AXP) $249.20 -0.30%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $440.37 -0.36%