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Main U.S. indexes slightly red
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Materials weakest S&P 500 sector; industrials lead gainers
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Euro STOXX 600 index up ~0.4%
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Dollar edges up; crude ~flat; gold, bitcoin dip
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U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield ~flat at ~3.29%
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U.S. STOCKS SLIP ON MORE WEAK DATA (1015 EDT/1415 GMT) Wall Street's main indexes are down, but well off their early lows on Thursday as a worse-than-expected weekly jobless claims report pointed to growing signs that rapid interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve was slowing down economic growth. That said, the DJI , which is off the most among the main indexes, is only down around 0.2%. Additionally, industrials are actually among those S&P 500 sectors posting a rise on the day.
Bank stocks , transports , and small caps are also in positive territory. Meanwhile, the U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield , at just over 3.29%, is on track to end its six-day losing streak if it finishes above 3.2870%. The current six day losing streak is its longest run of lower closes since a 13-day slide during the February-March 2020 pandemic panic.
Here is a snapshot of where markets stood around 45 minutes into the trading day:
(Terence Gabriel)
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NASDAQ COMPOSITE: ENOUGH THRUST OR BUST? (0902 EDT/1302 GMT) The Nasdaq Composite may have bumped up against a ceiling on the charts as it neared resistance at its September 2022 high. Indeed, with its 1.8% loss so far this week, the tech-laden index's three-week win streak is at risk. And now, after the latest jobless claims data came in worse than expected, e-mini-Nasdaq 100 futures are suggesting the Composite is poised to come under further pressure at the open.
That said, one measure of the Nasdaq's internal strength, on a monthly basis, still suggests that the IXIC may have enough thrust to ultimately see a greater advance:
The Nasdaq New High/New Low (NH/NL) index, on a monthly basis, bottomed in October at 14.5%. It crossed back over its descending 10-month moving average (MMA) in January, and has now improved to 30.8%, which is its highest level since April of last year. With this, the measure's six-month rate-of-change is currently the third strongest reading coming out of a trough since the mid-1990s. Only the upturns out of its 2003 and 2009 troughs were stronger. This measure certainly has a lot of room to rise before reaching previous peaks. And even then, in a number of instances, including its most recent top in 2021, the Nasdaq moved still higher, while the NH/NL index, on a monthly basis, diverged. It's still early in April, but bulls will want to see this measure continue to trend higher.
A down-tick would be a concern, and a break below its 10-MMA, which has now risen to 21.2%, could see it threaten its lows again.
(Terence Gabriel)
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(Terence Gabriel is a Reuters market analyst. The views
expressed are his own)
