Wall Street edges back from record highs on grim jobless claims
Wall Street edged back from record highs this evening after a surprise increase in jobless claims dimmed hopes of a swift economic recovery.
The S&P 500 slipped back 0.2 per cent to 3,629.65 points, while the Dow Jones fell 0.6 per cent to 29,872.47 points.
However, the tech heavy Nasdaq continued to rise, climbing 0.5 per cent to settle at 12,094.40.
The drop-off came after the number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose for the second straight week today.
In total, there were 778,000 new unemployment claims, way ahead of economist’s forecasts of 730,000.
The new figures were published a day earlier than usual by the US Labor Department because of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
With a new economic stimulus package not now expected until Joe Biden is sworn is as President in January, the current round of unemployment benefits will end for 1.4m Americans next month.
Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York, said that the decline in stocks was due to the fact that traders had come to terms with the fact that there is still a long way to go in the recovery from the pandemic.
“There’s a reality setting in that while the vaccine will start being distributed fairly quickly, the virus isn’t go away quickly and therefore the timeline for economic improvement is getting pushed out”, he said.