US markets end lower on renewed coronavirus fears

14 Feb 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Thursday amid reports of a jump in new coronavirus cases. Officials revealed an additional 242 deaths from the coronavirus in the Chinese province of Hubei as well as 14,840 new confirmed cases. While the jump in confirmed cases was partly due to the adoption of new methodology for counting infections, the spike still led to renewed fears about the outbreak. On the economic data front, with higher prices for food and shelter offsetting a steep drop in gasoline prices, the Labor Department released a report showing a modest increase in US consumer prices in the month of January. The Labor Department said its consumer price index inched up by 0.1 percent in January after rising by 0.2 percent in December. Street had expected prices to increase by 0.2 percent. The uptick in consumer prices was primarily due to an increase in shelter costs, which climbed by 0.4 percent in January.

Besides, first-time claims for US unemployment benefits inched up by less than expected in the week ended February 8, according to a report released by the Labor Department. The report said initial jobless claims crept up to 205,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level of 203,000. Street had expected jobless claims to rise to 210,000 from the 202,000 originally reported for the previous week. The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average was unchanged from the previous week's revised average at 212,000. Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance fell by 61,000 to 1.698 million in the week ended February 1.

Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 128.11 or 0.43 percent points to 29,423.31, Nasdaq declined 13.99 points or 0.14 percent to 9,711.97 and S&P 500 was down by 5.51 points or 0.16 percent to 3,373.94.

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