Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on October 4, 2023 in New York City.
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U.S. stock futures traded lower on Thursday as investors await key jobs data on Friday.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38 points, or 0.4%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.4%.
Clorox shares fell 3.3% premarket after the company’s fiscal first-quarter guidance came in well below consensus. Energy companies continued their decline as crude oil prices continued to fall. Chevron and ExxonMobil both fell 1%.
Weekly initial jobless claims totaled 207,000 in the week ending September 30, an increase of just 2,000 from the previous week’s numbers. Economists had forecast 210,000, according to a Dow Jones consensus estimate. While the slight increase in jobless claims was roughly in line with the rise in jobless numbers, it disappointed some investors who were hoping the weekly data would signal a collapse in the labor market and end the rise in interest rates that is hurting stocks.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose following the jobless claims report. The return was most recently 4.762%.
Stocks had a positive session. The S&P 500 gained 0.8% on Wednesday, while the Dow gained 0.4%, breaking a three-day losing streak. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was the outperformer of the three major averages, rising 1.35%.
“I’ve been cautious all year. “Obviously we’re getting a little reprieve today, but I think it’s just a short reprieve,” Liz Young, head of investment strategy at SoFi, said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”
Stocks benefited from the decline in government bond yields. The 10-year Treasury yield fell from highs last seen in 2007 after payroll company ADP said private job growth totaled 89,000 in September. That number was well below the Dow Jones estimate of 160,000 and appeared to reassure investors that the labor market was easing.
– CNBC’s Yun Li contributed reporting.