Wall Street opens mixed following US economic data

The main Wall Street indices have managed to start Thursday’s session mostly on the front foot after some mostly positive US economic data.

In the first minutes of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.63% at 34,540 while the S&P 500 rose 0.3% to 4,208. The one outlier was the Nasdaq, which in early deals was down 0.03% at 13,733.

Investors may have been given a slight boost as new figures showed US weekly jobless claims are continuing to decline.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week from an unrevised 444,000 to 406,000. This is a new pandemic low, the lowest level since March 14, 2020, and better than the forecast figure of 425,000.

The four-week moving average fell by 46,000 to 458,750, again the lowest level since March 14 last year.

Meanwhile, the second estimate of US GDP for the second quarter was unchanged from the first at an annualised 6.4%, down from 4.3% in the fourth quarter of last year.

US durable good orders were more mixed, falling 1.3% in April and worse than the 0.8% growth expected.

7:55am: Wall Street set for a slight dip

After slight gains on Wednesday, Wall Street is expected to dip slightly at the open.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is forecast to edge down imperceptibly by 2 points while the S&P 500 is forecast to open down 0.18% and the Nasdaq Composite to show a 0.33% decline.

Investors are waiting for a raft of US economic data which will show the strength of the world’s largest economy and provide more discussion about if and when the US Federal Reserve needs to act on inflationary pressures.

There is a second estimate of first-quarter GDP, which initially showed a 6.4% annualised gain, better than the 6.1% expected.

Meanwhile, the weekly jobless claims are forecast to fall from 444,000 to around 425,000.

Sophie Griffiths at Oanda said: “US futures are edging slightly lower as investors brace themselves for a slew of numbers today, including a potential upward revision to first-quarter GDP data and jobless claims, which are expected to fall to a fresh pandemic low. These numbers come ahead of tomorrow’s PCE [personal consumption expenditures] inflation data.

“Inflation jitters are making a comeback ahead of tomorrow’s data, which is pulling futures lower. Expectations are for a PCE jump to 2.9% year on year in April, up from 1.8% in March.”

Four things to watch for on Thursday:

• Companies in the earnings diary today include cloud software firm Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), wholesaler Costco Corp (NASDAQ:COST) and computing giant Dell Technologies Inc (NYSE:DELL)
• Healthcare apparel maker Figs Inc will be in focus as it begins its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange after pricing its IPO at US$22 per share, above its initial range of between US$16-US$19 and valuing the group at around US$3.6bn.
• Clothing retailer Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) could also draw some attention after inking  a partnership with retail titan Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) to launch its first home collection
• On the macro front, US durable goods orders data will be in focus alongside GDP readings and jobless claims

Story by ProactiveInvestors