US markets made a flat closing ahead of jobs report

05 Aug 2016 Evaluate

The US markets made a flat closing on Thursday, as investors awaited the closely watched jobs report due Friday, which is likely to command more attention given the surprising readings from the two previous labor data. On the economy front, the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week rose by 3,000 to 269,000, marking the highest level since the end of June. Despite the rise, claims remained well below their recent peak of 277,000 in mid-June. The claims have been below the key 300,000 benchmark of a healthy labor market for 74 weeks and counting - a feat last duplicated in the early 1970s. The nation’s official unemployment is also a tick below 5%. The average of new jobless claims over the past month rose by 3,750 to 260,250. Continuing jobless claims decreased to 2.138 million in the week ended July 23 from 2.144 million in the prior week. Separately, factory orders fell 1.5% in June, which is the second-consecutive sharp decline. May’s factory orders fell a revised 1.2%, compared with the prior estimate of a 1% drop. In June, orders were dragged down by durable-goods orders - products meant to last at least three years - which fell a revised 3.9% in June, a slight improvement from the prior estimate of a 4% fall.

Meanwhile, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans offered a lukewarm endorsement of an interest rate increase later this year, despite his worry that inflation is still undershooting the US central bank’s 2 percent target. Evans enlightened that the real economy is doing quite well in the US, especially given all the headwinds we are facing, including slower growth in Europe and China. He added that perhaps one rate increase could be appropriate this year.

The Nasdaq gained 6.51 points or 0.13 percent to 5,166.25, S&P 500 was up by 0.46 points or 0.02 percent to 2,164.25, while Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.95 points or 0.02 percent to 18,352.05.

The Indian ADRs closed mostly in green; Tata Motors was up 1.22%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.75% and HDFC Bank was up 0.16%. On the other hand, Infosys was down 0.26% and ICICI Bank was down 0.03%.

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