The US markets ended mostly lower on Thursday as traders kept an eye on the latest developments in Washington amid lingering uncertainty about a new fiscal stimulus bill. The House has passed a one-week funding bill to avoid a government shutdown, although lawmakers remain at a stalemate over coronavirus relief. The impasse partly reflects a dispute between Republicans and Democrats over including aid for state and local governments. Meanwhile, traders were also reacting to a Labor Department report showing a significant increase in first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended December 5th. The report said initial jobless claims jumped to 853,000, an increase of 137,000 from the previous week's revised level of 716,000. Street had expected jobless claims to rise to 725,000 from the 712,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the much bigger than expected increase, jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 873,000 in the week ended September 19th. A separate report released by the Labor Department showed a modest increase in US consumer prices in the month of November. The Labor Department said its consumer price index rose by 0.2 percent in November after coming in unchanged in October. The uptick in consumer prices matched street estimates. Excluding food and energy prices, core consumer prices still edged up by 0.2 percent in November after showing no change in the previous month. Street had expected core prices to inch up by 0.1 percent.
Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 69.55 points or 0.23 percent to 29,999.26 and S&P 500 was down by 4.72 points or 0.13 percent 3,668.1, while Nasdaq gained 66.86 points or 0.54 percent to 12,405.81.
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