US markets end lower on Thursday

04 Aug 2023 Evaluate

The US markets ended lower on Thursday. The weakness on markets partly reflected continued concerns about U.S. debt after credit rating agency Fitch Ratings unexpectedly downgraded the United States' credit rating on Tuesday. Cautiousness prevailed in the markets as a report released by the Labor Department showed a modest increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended July 29th. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims crept up to 227,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 221,000. The uptick in jobless claims matched street estimates. Meanwhile, the report said the less volatile four-week moving average edged down to 228,250, a decrease of 5,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 233,750.

Besides, the Institute for Supply Management released a report showing a modest slowdown in the pace of growth in U.S. service sector activity in the month of July. The ISM said its services PMI slipped to 52.7 in July from 53.9 in June, although a reading above 50 still indicates growth. Street had expected the index to edge down to 53.0. The modest decrease by the headline index partly reflected a slowdown in the pace of growth in business activity, with the business activity index falling to 57.1 in July from 59.2 in June. On the sectoral front, Despite the lackluster performance by the broader markets, airline stocks showed a substantial move to the downside, dragging the NYSE Arca Airline Index down by 3.2 percent to its lowest closing level in almost two months.

Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 66.63 points or 0.19 percent to 35,215.89, Nasdaq fell 13.73 points or 0.1 percent to 13,959.72 and S&P 500 was down by 11.5 points or 0.25 percent to 4,501.89.

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