The US markets closed lower on Thursday, ending the final trading day of 2015 with a whimper rather than a bang, as the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both snapped multiyear winning streaks. The minutes of the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting will be released in coming weeks, possibly giving clues on the timing of the next US interest-rate move. On the economy front, new applications for US unemployment benefits jumped by 20,000 to 287,000 in the seven days ended December 26. This is the largest weekly increase since February. Claims are at their highest level since the week of July 4. The average of new claims over the past month, meanwhile, rose by 4,500 to a seasonally adjusted 277,000. The four-week average smooths out sharp fluctuations in the more volatile weekly report and is seen as a more accurate predictor of labor-market trends. Separately, economic activity in the Midwest contracted at the fastest pace in more than six years in December, according to the Chicago Business Barometer, also known as the Chicago PMI. The index fell to 42.9 from 48.7 in November. The index has spent much of the year below the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction. Order backlogs were the biggest drag in December, dropping 17.2 points to 29.4. That’s the lowest since May 2009 and marked the 11th-straight month in contraction. The last time such a sharp decline was registered was 1951. New orders also sank to the lowest level since May 2009. That’s bad news for activity down the road. Still, 55.1% of survey respondents expect stronger demand in 2016 than in 2015.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 178.84 points or 1.02 percent to 17,425.03, the Nasdaq was down 58.44 points or 1.15 percent to 5,007.41 and the S&P 500 dropped 19.42 points or 0.94 percent to 2,043.94.
The Indian ADRs closed mostly in green; HDFC Bank was up 0.49%, Tata Motors was up by 0.06% and ICICI Bank was up by 0.05%. On the other hand, Wipro was down by 0.10% and Infosys was down 0.07%.
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