US close: Wall Street breaks three-day winning streak

dl wall street st new york city nyc nyse stock exchange ny dow jones nasdaq sp finance us usa united states of america — Wall StreetSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks closed weaker on Thursday, breaking a three-day rally for the major United States indices.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was almost flat, finishing at 35,754.69, as the S&P 500 lost 0.72% at 4,667.45 and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.71% weaker.

The Dow closed just 0.06 points lower on Thursday, recovering earlier losses but failing to add to the gains recorded in the previous session, as fears surrounding the Covid-19 ‘Omicron’ variant faded.

“North American equities declined on Thursday as investors remained cautious ahead of a key US inflation report, and possible economic impacts from Omicron,” said analysts at TD Securities.

“Risk-off sentiment led to a rally in bond markets, with the US 10-year falling 3.4 basis points.”

Market participants were earlier digesting 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 American jobs market continued to climb out of its pandemic-hit crater.

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 now looking ahead to Friday, with all-important inflation news coming in the form of November's consumer price index on Friday.

Economists were expecting the Federal Reserve to react to a burst in inflation by beginning to pull back on economic aid.

The first step would be an acceleration in the reduction of 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 next spring.

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 equities, Spam maker Hormel Foods was up 4.7% after it reported fourth-quarter sales and earnings growth, on the back of a recovery in the US food service sector.

Going the other way, meme stock favourite GameStop slid 10.3% even after it reported sales growth of almost 30% overnight.

Dow Jones - Risers

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $49.17 1.38%
Visa Inc. (V) $211.37 1.15%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $262.30 1.06%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $138.50 0.98%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $473.32 0.95%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $165.90 0.95%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $57.55 0.93%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $153.32 0.58%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $123.57 0.45%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $411.34 0.02%