The US markets closed lower on Thursday, but ended well off the day’s lows, as a decision by one of Portugal’s biggest banks to delay a debt payment reminded investors of the fragility of Europe’s banking system. The US economic data however continued to show an improving economy. The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits in the first week of July fell by 11,000 to 304,000, putting initial claims close to a seven-year bottom again and offering more evidence that US hiring has accelerated while the rate of layoffs remains low. The monthly figure, which is also just a hair above a seven-year low, offers a better look at underlying trends in the labor market. Also, the government stated that continuing claims increased by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.58 million in the week ended June 28. Continuing claims reflect the number of people already receiving benefits. Initial claims from two weeks ago were unrevised at 315,000. Separately, US wholesale inventories increased by 0.5% in May, while wholesale sales rose 0.7%. Inventories of durable goods advanced 1.0%, but inventories of nondurable goods such as groceries and clothing fell 0.3%.
Meanwhile, Stanley Fischer, the new vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve, argued against breaking up the biggest banks. Fischer stated that it is not clear that breaking up the largest banks would end the need for government bailouts of the financial sector. Fischer, the former vice chairman of Citigroup, will find some opposition to this view on the Fed as Richard Fisher, the president of the Dallas Fed, is a strong proponent of breaking up banks to end too-big-to-fail.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 70.54 points or 0.42 percent to 16,915.07, the Nasdaq was down 22.83 points or 0.52 percent to 4,396.20, while the S&P 500 dropped by 8.15 points or 0.41 percent at 1,964.68.
Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Thursday; ICICI Bank was down by 0.77%, HDFC Bank was down 0.72% and Tata Motors was down 0.71%. On the other hand, Infosys was up by 0.62% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.12%.