US close: Stocks mostly lower as sell-off rolls on

adollarmakemeholler — Sharecast / Pixabay

Wall Street stocks were mostly weaker at the close on Thursday, although they were off their earlier troughs, as inflation data continued to weigh on sentiment.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.33% at 31,730.30, as the S&P 500 lost 0.13% to 3,930.08, while the Nasdaq Composite managed gains of 0.06% to 11,370.96.

The Dow closed 103.81 points lower on Thursday, adding to the losses it recorded on Wednesday as April's CPI data revealed that consumer prices had jumped 8.3%, higher than expected and close to a 40-year high of 8.5%.

The CPI reading led market participants to continue to offload risky assets such as tech stocks and bitcoin, with Apple stock heading south and pushing the tech behemoth into a bear market, while the benchmark cryptocurrency fell to roughly $23,150 in early trading.

With the CPI reading still in focus, growth in the US producer price index slowed as expected in April, according to figures released on Thursday by the Labor Department.

The producer price index for final demand rose 0.5%, in line with analysts’ expectations and down from 1.6% in March and 1.1% in February.

On the year, PPI rose 11% in April, versus 11.5% the month before and expectations for a 10.7% jump.

Core PPI, which excludes food and energy prices, was up 0.4% on the month compared with an upwardly-revised 1.2% in March.

On the year, core PPI rose 8.8%.

Elsewhere, US first-time jobless claims ticked up by 1,000 in the week ended 7 May to hit 203,000, ahead of both the prior week's upwardly revised print of 202,000 and estimates for a reading of 195,000.

According to the Labor Department, the four-week moving average was 192,750, an increase of 4,250 from the previous week's revised reading, which grew from 188,000 to 188,500,

In corporate headlines, Walt Disney shares closed 0.86% weaker after posting mixed earnings results overnight, with higher-than-expected streaming subscriber growth being paired with a warning regarding the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns on its Asian theme parks.

Six Flags Entertainment tumbled 4.71%, despite beating estimates with its first-quarter earnings per share and revenues, which came in at $1.04 and $138.0m, respectively.

Dow Jones - Risers

Home Depot Inc. (HD) $289.69 2.38%
3M Co. (MMM) $149.59 2.17%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $90.83 1.84%
Amgen Inc. (AMGN) $244.72 1.70%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $132.90 1.64%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $177.87 0.99%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $164.71 0.95%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $173.37 0.57%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $48.06 0.38%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $67.04 0.37%