Stock Market News Today, 6/6/24 – Indices Finish Mixed; Jobless Data Disappoints – TipRanks.com

Last Updated: 4:05 PM EST

Stock indices finished today’s trading session mixed. The Nasdaq 100 (NDX) and the S&P 500 (SPX) fell 0.07% and 0.02%, respectively. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) gained 0.2%. On Thursday, the Department of Labor released its Initial Jobless Claims report, which came in worse than expected. In the past week, 229,000 people filed for unemployment insurance for the first time. Expectations were for 220,000 individuals.

When using the four-week average, initial jobless claims were 222,250, down from last week’s reading of 223,000.

In addition, Continuing Jobless Claims, which measures the number of unemployed people who qualify for unemployment insurance, came in at 1.792 million. This was above the forecast of 1.79 million and higher than last week’s print.

Furthermore, the Atlanta Federal Reserve updated its latest GDPNow reading, which allows it to estimate GDP growth in real time. The “nowcast” becomes more accurate as more economic data is released throughout the quarter. Currently, it estimates that the economy will expand by about 2.6% in the second quarter.

This is higher than its previous estimate of 1.8%, which can be attributed to recent releases from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Institute for Supply Management, and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Shifting our focus across the Atlantic, the European Central Bank announced its first interest rate cut since September 2019. Indeed, the rate is now 4.25% versus the previous 4.5%. This comes after the Bank of Canada slashed its interest rate as well just yesterday, going from 5% to 4.75%. These lower rates could potentially lead to a stronger U.S. dollar.

First Published: 5:09 AM EST

U.S. futures were steady on Thursday morning following a strong trading session yesterday. Both the S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite indices hit a new record high, buoyed by a 5.2% rally in artificial intelligence major Nvidia (NVDA). Futures on the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) and the S&P 500 were up by about 0.12%, and 0.03%, respectively, at 4:26 a.m. EST, June 6, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down by 0.05%.

On Wednesday, all three major indices – the Nasdaq, the S&P 500, and the Dow Jones – closed higher by 1.96%, 1.18%, and 0.25%, respectively. The rally was driven by positive market sentiment about Nvidia’s upcoming stock split. Importantly, NVDA surpassed a $3 trillion market cap and overtook Apple (AAPL) to become the world’s second-most valuable company.

In major after-hours action, Luluemon (LULU) stock jumped 10% on better-than-expected Q1 results. However, Five Below (FIVE) declined by about 15% after the release of disappointing Q1 results and a guidance cut.

In today’s economic calendar, Initial Jobless Claims data for the week ended May 31 is scheduled for release. Coming to corporate earnings, J.M. Smucker (SJM), Nio (NIO), Ciena (CIEN), DocuSign (DOCU), and Braze (BRZE) are some of the companies that will report their quarterly numbers.

Meanwhile, the U.S. 10-year treasury yield was up at the time of writing, floating near 4.31%. At the same time, WTI crude oil futures trended higher, hovering near $74.82 per barrel as of the last check.

Elsewhere, European markets opened higher today due to increased expectations of the European Central Bank (ECB) cutting interest rates for the first time since September 2019.

Asia Pacific Markets Traded Mixed on Thursday

Asia-Pacific indices closed mixed today as investors prepared for the ECB’s interest rate decision, due today.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.28%. At the same time, Japan’s Nikkei and Topix indices finished higher by 0.55% and 0.33%, respectively. However, China’s Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Component indices traded lower by 0.54% and 0.57%, respectively.

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