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U.S. stocks were modestly lower in late-day trading Thursday, while Treasury yields and the dollar extended declines, as investors hit pause on Wall Street's solid November rally while again tracking moves in the bond market following a big jump in jobless claims data and a warning on consumer spending from Walmart.
Updated 3:14 PM EST - Martin Baccardax
Stocks holding onto losses into the final hour of trading
The S&P 500 is down just 1 point on the session, and less than 2% from a 52-week high, while a $13.86 (8.16%) slump for Walmart is taking around 91 points from the Dow, which is down around 121 points on the day. The Nasdaq is down 8 points.
If an end-of-day rally is going to come, it needs to arrive soon, and mega-cap tech is likely to be the driver, so watch for Apple (AAPL) -), Nvidia (NVDA) -) and Alphabet (GOOGL) -) into the close.
Updated 1:35PM EST - Martin Baccardax
CORRECTION: the 20-year Treasury bond auction is slated for Monday, not today as I had in an outdated calendar. My apologies for the error.
That said, bonds are still firm on the session, with benchmark 10-year notes marked at 4.441%, around 7 basis points lower on the session, with 2-year paper changing hands at 4.835%.
The S&P 500 was last seen 5.7 points lower on the session, with the Dow down 1229 points. The Nasdaq was down 23 points.
Updated 12:00 PM EST - Martin Baccardax
Stocks moving lower even as bonds eye 20-year auction.
The S&P 500 is now moving further into the red, although there's not a great deal of conviction in the trade as Treasury yields continue to slide into today's $13 billion 20-year bond auction.
The benchmark slipped 14 points, or 0.45%, while the Dow was marked 156 points to the downside, pulled lower by a 7.4% slump for Walmart. The Nasdaq was down 42 points.
Updated 10:45 AM EST - Martin Baccardax
Global oil prices are slumping firmly lower Thursday, on pace for their fourth consecutive weekly decline, amid a surprise build-up in domestic U.S. stockpiles and ongoing demand concerns linked to China weakness and European recession risks.
Brent crude futures contracts for January delivery, the global pricing benchmark, were marked $2.78 lower at $78.41 per barrel while WTI futures for December, which are tightly-linked to gas prices, fell $2.82 to $73.84 per barre.
Updated 10:00 AM EST - Martin Baccardax
Stocks turn higher as bond yields extend slide
Benchmark 10-year note yields slipped to 4.453% in early Thursday trading, while 2-year notes were pegged at 4.829%, as markets reacted to the weaker-than-expected jobs data an another disappointing reading for October industrial production.
The downside moves helped the S&P 500 turn higher, with both the Dow and the Nasdaq moving modestly into the green in early Thursday trading.
The S&P 500 was marked 7 points higher, or 0.17%, while the Dow added 30 points. The Nasdaq was up 11 points.
Updated 9:35 AM EST - Martin Baccardax
Stocks open lower on Walmart weakness
The S&P 500, which is now up 10% from its recent October lows, was marked 2 points lower at the opening bell, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 65 points. The tech-focused Nasdaq was down 30 points.
Updated 8:38 AM EST - Martin Baccardax
Jobless claims jump to 2-year high
The Labor Department said claims for new jobless benefits rose by 13,000 to 231,000 last week, well ahead of the Street consensus forecast of 220,000 and the highest in nearly two years. The upward move pegs the closely-watched four week average at 220,250 up from 212,500 last week.
The readings should ease some concern that a tight labor market is stoking inflation pressures into the final weeks of the year.
Updated 8:06 AM EST - Martin Baccardax
Walmart slump drags retailers lower
Retail stocks are getting pulled into the Walmart slump, with Target (TGT) -) falling 1.8% (albeit after its best gain in four years yesterday) and Home Depot HD down 0.15%.
Macy's M, however, is surging nearly 9% after posting stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings as fewer product markdowns and slower freight costs boosted margins by 1.1%,
Updated 7:21 AM EST - Martin Baccardax
Walmart slumps on consumer spending caution
Walmart (WMT) -) shares slumped more than 4% in pre-market trading after the retail giant issued a muted full-year profit outlook, while expressing concern for the health of the U.S. consumer, despite a better-than-expected third quarter earnings update.
Walmart shares, a Dow component, were marked 4.3% lower to indicate an opening bell price of $162.52 each.
Related: Walmart slumps as cautious consumer spending outlook clouds Q3 earnings beat
Stocks booked modest gains last night, powered in part by softer-than-expected factory gate inflation data and solid third quarter earnings from Target (TGT) -), but gave back gains later in the session as a robust reading for core October retail sales kept inflation concerns at low-boil and triggered a snap-back in Treasury bond yields.
Benchmark 10-year notes were pegged at 4.451% heading into the New York session, around 2 basis points higher from levels seen just after Tuesday's consumer price inflation print, which showed core pressures easing to a fresh 2-year low of 4%, following the weekly jobless data.
At the same time, 2-year notes were marked a 4.829%, 6 basis points lower from last night's levels, while the U.S. dollar index fell 0.22% lower against a basket of its global peers at 104.158.
The Labor Department's weekly reading of new jobless claims, as well as a $13 billion auction on new 20-year notes, will be closely-watched for signs of underlying inflation pressures or weak foreign demand, and could trigger moves in the bond market that may ripple into stocks throughout the session.
Broader market sentiment may find comfort in a productive, but by no means breakthrough meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in San Francisco, where the two leaders pledged more direct communication between militaries and a crackdown on fentanyl production.
A late Wednesday vote in the Senate also looks to have averted a weekend government shutdown, with lawmakers supporting the Republican-led stopgap bill that funds the government at current levels until early January.
President Biden is expected to sign the bill in the coming days.
In overseas markets, Europe's Stoxx 600 was marked 0.5% lower in late-day Frankfurt trading, while Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.86% in London amid a nearly 7% slump for luxury brands group Burberry plc.
Overnight in Asia, the steepest fall in China house prices since 2015, as well as a pullback in property investment, underscored weakness in the real estate sector and tipped domestic stocks firmly into the red, with the region-wide MSCI ex-Japan index falling 0.27% into the close of trading.
Slowing export growth and concerns linked to invention to support the weakened yen pushed the Nikkei 225 into a 0.28% decline on the session.
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