US markets end lower on profit booking

10 Dec 2021 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Thursday as traders cashed in on the recent strength in the markets, which saw stocks recover strongly from the post-Thanksgiving sell-off triggered by the detection of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, traders were now looking ahead to the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement next week. Reports suggest the Fed could decide to double the pace of tapering its asset purchase program to $30 billion per month. A report on consumer price inflation due to be released on Friday could impact the outlook for Fed policy, leading some traders to look for safe havens ahead of the data. On the sectoral front, significant weakness emerged among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent slump by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. The index pulled back further off Tuesday's record closing high.

On the economic data front, first-time claims for US unemployment benefits pulled back by much more than expected in the week ended December 4, according to a report released by the Labor Department. The report said initial jobless claims slid to 184,000, a decrease of 43,000 from the previous week's revised level of 227,000. Street had expected jobless claims to edge down to 215,000 from the 222,000 originally reported for the previous week. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department released a report showing a sharp increase in US wholesale inventories in the month of October. The report said wholesale inventories surged up by 2.3 percent in October after jumping by 1.4 percent in September. Street had expected inventories to shoot up by 2.1 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.06 points to 35,754.69, Nasdaq dropped 269.62 points or 1.71 percent to 15,517.37 and S&P 500 was down by 33.76 points or 0.72 percent to 4,667.45.

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