This post was originally published on this site
https://i-invdn-com.akamaized.net/news/LYNXMPEA5N0R4_M.jpg
Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened lower on Thursday after fresh data suggesting that the surge in coronavirus cases across the U.S. is derailing the economic recovery.
By 9:35 AM ET (1335 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 47 points, or 0.2% at 26,959 points. The S&P 500 was also down 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.3%.
Labor Department numbers released earlier showed that initial jobless claims rose for the first time since April to 1.416 million, suggesting that the pace of layoffs is picking up again after slowing gradually over the previous three months. Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the numbers were distorted higher by seasonal quirks which could last another week before unwinding.
“The underlying trend in claims since mid-June, before these distortions, seems to have been about flat,” Shepherdson said. “But claims are still running at more than twice the worst single week after the crash of 2008.”
The data followed others showing a sustained increase in deaths across the U.S. from the Covid-19 virus. The death toll hit 1,100 again on Wednesday and more people have now died of the virus in the U.S. than in the European Union, which has a considerably larger population.
The market was further unsettled by the spread of violence across various cities in the U.S., and the deployment of federal agents to quell the unrest, as well as by lawmakers’ apparent difficulties in crafting the latest package of economic stimulus measures. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed on Thursday that there will be no payroll tax cut in the package, signalling the first of what is likely to be many compromises on the way to reaching a deal.
The numbers overshadowed better-than-expected earnings released after the bell on Wednesday by Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Tesla stock fell 3.0%, paring overnight and premarket gains on concerns that the company’s results were flattered by the sale of emissions credits. Microsoft stock fell 1.5%, on a slowdown in growth at its lucrative Cloud-hosting business Azure.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was another stock in the spotlight, falling 0.5% after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) recommended investors avoid the stock on valuation grounds. Analyst Rod Hall’s price target of $299 is more than 20% below Wednesday’s closing price.
Elsewhere, Danaher (NYSE:DHR) stock rose 2.5% and Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) stock rose 2.8% after both companies posted stronger-than-expected earnings, but AT&T (NYSE:T) stock fell 1.5% after the Covid-19 pandemic wiped over half a billion dollars from its basic operating earnings, mainly through a hit to advertising revenue.
