US markets end lower on Thursday

20 May 2022 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Thursday, expending their previous session’s losses, as traders continued to debate when the markets will reach a bottom, with the S&P 500 closing in on bear market territory. Investors continued to dump equities on fears Federal Reserve rate hikes to fight rapid inflation would tip the economy into a recession. On the sectoral front, networking stocks showed a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Networking Index down by 2.9 percent to its lowest closing level in over a year. Significant weakness was also visible among tobacco stocks, as reflected by the 2.6 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Tobacco Index. Computer hardware and transportation stocks also saw considerable weakness, with the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index and the Dow Jones Transportation Average falling by 1.9 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.

On the economic data front, a report released by the Labor Department showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly increased in the week ended May 14th. The report showed initial jobless claims rose to 218,000, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week's revised level of 197,000. Street had expected jobless claims to edge down to 200,000 from the 203,000 originally reported for the previous week. Meanwhile, existing home sales showed a significant decrease in the month of April, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). NAR said existing home sales tumbled 2.4 percent to an annual rate of 5.61 million in April after plunging by 3.0 percent to a revised rate of 5.75 million in March. Street had expected existing home sales to decrease by 0.7 percent.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 236.94 points or 0.75 percent to 31,253.13, Nasdaq dropped 29.66 points or 0.26 percent to 11,388.5 and S&P 500 was down by 22.89 points or 0.58 percent to 3,900.79.

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