US markets end mostly lower on Thursday

17 Sep 2021 Evaluate
The US markets ended mostly lower on Thursday following report from the Labor Department showed first-time claims for US unemployment benefits rebounded by slightly more than expected in the week ended September 11th. The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 332,000, an increase of 20,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 312,000. Street had expected initial jobless claims to rise to 328,000 from the 310,000 originally reported for the previous week. The modest increase came after initial jobless claims fell to their lowest level since March of 2020 in the previous week. Meanwhile, a report from the Commerce Department showed an unexpected rebound in US retail sales in the month of August. The Commerce Department said retail sales climbed by 0.7 percent in August after plunging by a revised 1.8 percent in July.

The rebound surprised participants, who had expected retail sales to decrease by another 0.8 percent compared to the 1.1 percent slump originally reported for the previous month. Excluding a continued nosedive in sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales surged up by 1.8 percent in August after tumbling by a revised 1.0 percent in July. Street had expected ex-auto sales to edge down by 0.2 percent compared to the 0.4 percent drop originally reported for the previous month. While the rebound in retail sales partly reflected a shift back to online spending amid the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, the resilience shown by consumers may encourage the Federal Reserve to follow through on plans to begin tapering its asset purchases later this year.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 63.07 points or 0.18 percent to 34,751.32 and S&P 500 was down by 6.95 points or 0.16 percent to 4,473.75, while Nasdaq rose 20.4 points or 0.13 percent to 15,181.92.

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