The US markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday, a third straight record close on Wednesday, boosted in part by industrials, while the Nasdaq lagged behind in trading ahead of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. The US stock market will be closed on Thursday and will close early on Friday. Stocks barely budged after the Federal Reserve released minutes from its November meeting. The Fed minutes showed that policy makers agreed an interest-rate increase may be appropriate relatively soon. Senior Federal Reserve officials agreed last month it might be appropriate to raise interest rates relatively soon against a backdrop of an improving labor market and somewhat higher inflation. At a two-day session in early November, policy makers took note of a steady increase in new jobs and a tighter labor market that was driving wage inflation higher. Overtime hours were also on the rise and some industries were facing a shortage of qualified workers. Fed officials also pointed to somewhat higher inflation in recent months. The Fed minutes reported that in light of these developments, most participants expressed a view that it could well become appropriate to raise the target range for the federal-funds rate relatively soon. Many officials even worried the US economic recovery could be at risk if the central bank waited too long to raise rates, a marked change compared with just a few months ago. Two of the 10 central-bank officials responsible for setting the so-called fed-funds rate wanted to raise the cost of borrowing in November. They dissented from the decision to leave rates unchanged.
On the economy front, the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits in mid-November in the week running from November 13 to November 19 leapt 18,000 to 251,000, but the increase comes just one week after initial claims fell to 43-year low in a reflection of a sharply improved labor market. Most of the increase appeared to take place in California and Illinois. Initial jobless claims remain extremely low despite the latest uptick. They fell under 300,000 in early 2015 and have remained below that key threshold for 90 straight weeks. That’s the longest streak since 1970. The economy has been adding about 180,000 new jobs a month in 2016 and the unemployment has fallen to a post-recession low of 4.9%. The less volatile four-week average of initial claims, seen as a more accurate measure of labor-market trends, fell 2,000 to 251,000. Continuing jobless claims, meanwhile, climbed 60,000 to 2.43 million in the week ended Nov. 12. In early November they briefly sank below the 2 million mark for the first time since 2000.
Meanwhile, orders for long-lasting goods made in the US soared 4.8% in October largely because of stronger demand for commercial aircraft, but business investment is still not showing much spark. The increase in new orders for durable goods - the fourth in a row - topped the 3.3% estimate. A slew of fresh bookings for Boeing helped spur a 94.1% spike in new orders for passenger planes. Aircraft orders often swing sharply from month to month and can obscure trends in business spending. Demand for new autos slipped 0.6%. A key measure of business investment known as core capital-goods orders, meanwhile, rose a modest 0.4% in October after a big drop in the prior month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 59.31 points or 0.31 percent to 19,083.18, S&P 500 gained 1.78 points or 0.08 percent to 2,204.72, while Nasdaq was down 5.67 points or 0.11 percent to 5,380.68.
The Indian ADRs closed mostly in green; Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.58%, HDFC Bank was up by 0.21% and Infosys was up 0.07%. On the other hand, Tata Motors was down by 0.46% and ICICI Bank was down 0.05%.
