U.S. stocks traded lower on Thursday and pointed to a third consecutive decline as rising Treasury yields continued to put pressure on equities while investors digested second quarter earnings reports. What’s happening
Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
falls 131 points, or 0.4%, to 35,152.
S&P 500
SPX
dropped 19 points, or 0.4%, to 4,494.
Nasdaq Composite
COMP
fell by 31 points, or 0.2%, to 13,942.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 348 points, or 0.98%, to 35283, the S&P 500 declined 63 points, or 1.38%, to 4513, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 310 points, or 2.17%, to 13973.
What’s driving markets U.S. investors received another update on the labor market on Thursday, this time it was weekly data on the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits. The figure inched up to 227,000 last week, although economists continue to see no signs of rising layoffs. A day earlier, the market reacted negatively to a news that U.S. private-sector payrolls grew strongly in July. Strong labor-market data are seen as hurting the chances that the Federal Reserve might abstain from another interest-rate hike when its top policymakers meet in September. On Friday, investors will receive the July nonfarm payrolls report from the Department of Labor. Economists expect to see that 200,000 jobs were created last month. See: July jobs forecast: 200,000. Still too hot for the Fed, but the devil is in the details. But before that, investors will receive earnings from Apple Inc.
AAPL,
-0.47%
and Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+0.27%,
two members of the “Magnificent Seven” group of megacap technology names that have powered much of this year’s stock-market rally after the market closes Thursday. See: Apple earnings: What to expect from the iPhone maker The decision late Tuesday by Fitch Ratings to downgrade the U.S. credit rating has continued to impact both Treasurys and, by extension, U.S. stocks. It’s complicating investors’ feelings about T …
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