YORK: Early on Thursday, Wall Street equities mostly increased, despite new data suggesting that the labour market might not be as tight as officials had hoped.
US stocks open mixed: According to Labour Department data issued on Thursday, initial unemployment claims in the US fell to 187,000 for the week ending January 13, which is the lowest level since September 2022.
Additionally, continuing claims trended downward.
“The preliminary claims data indicates a decrease in layoffs in recent weeks,” stated High Frequency Economics’ principal US economist, Rubeela Farooqi.
However, she also stated in a note that, generally speaking, there is less demand for labour, as “evident in slowing job growth and lower openings.”
Shortly after trading began, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2 percent to 37,209.83.
However, the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index surged 1.0 percent to 14,998.88, while the broadly-based S&P 500 gained 0.4 percent to 4,757.95.
According to Briefing.com, the most important conclusion from the jobless claims report is “that the labour market is still not showing sudden signs of stress.”
It went on to say that this might provide Federal Reserve officials more motivation to continue using hawkish language when controlling expectations for interest rate reductions.
The data caused yields on US Treasury notes maturing between two and ten years to rise. Interest rates in the US are said to be proxied by Treasury bond yields.
Despite this, Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments is still upbeat about the market, saying that it “had every chance in world to fall” in reaction to this month’s larger-than-expected increase in consumer prices and better jobs statistics.
“The chances are that market will rise when it is unable to decline and remains slightly below a new all-time high,” he stated.
Apple had a 2.1% increase in share price among individual firms following an upgrade from Bank of America.
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company increased 8.2 percent when company’s profits beat forecast.
