US markets end mostly in red on Thursday

24 Apr 2020 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly in red on Thursday as traders reacted to conflicting reports regarding Gilead Sciences' (GILD) potential coronavirus treatment remdesivir.  A private report said the drug flopped in its first randomized clinical trial. Citing draft documents accidentally published by the World Health Organization, report said the Chinese trial showed remdesivir did not improve patients' condition or reduce the pathogen's presence in the bloodstream. On the economic data front, more than 4 million people filed first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended April 18th, according to a report released by the Labor Department , although that reflects a continued decline from the nearly 7 million people that filed first-time claims in the last week of March.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims dropped to 4.427 million, a decrease of 810,000 from the previous week's revised level of 5.237 million. Street had expected jobless claims to slump to 4.200 million from the 5.245 million originally reported for the previous week. Meanwhile, a report released by the Commerce Department showed a substantial decrease in new home sales in the US in the month of March. The Commerce Department said new home sales plunged by 15.4 percent to an annual rate of 627,000 in March after tumbling by 4.6 percent to a revised rate of 741,000 in February. Street had expected new home sales to nosedive by 15.7 percent to an annual rate of 645,000 in March from the 765,000 originally reported for the previous month.

Nasdaq lost 0.63 points 0.01 percent to 8,494.75 and S&P 500 was down by 1.51 points or 0.05 percent to 2,797.8, while Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 39.44 points or 0.17 percent to 23,515.26.

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