US Market Recap: US Stock Indexes Softened Because Many Tech Stocks Closed Lower
Go Wire
December 27, 2024
GoGPT Summarizes Articles
On Thursday (Dec. 26), three indexes in the US stock market were soft amid reduced trading volume in the holiday-shortened trading hours.
At the market's close, the S&P 500 index lost 0.04% to 6,037.59. The Nasdaq Composite index inched lower 0.05% to 20,020.36. The Dow Jones index edged up 0.07% to 43,325.80.
Major tech giants mostly closed lower. Tesla $TSLA was down 1.76%. Nvidia $NVDA fell 0.21%. Alphabet Inc Class C $GOOG edged down 0.24%. Arm Holdings $ARM dropped 1.59%.
The only exception was Apple $AAPL which gained 0.32% because Wedbush raised its price target to $325.
The downturn in tech stocks came as higher yields drew investors away from tech stocks and into bonds. Investors reacted to a slight rise in U.S. government bond yields amid a lack of clues about market movement. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond surged to its highest since May at 4.64% during Thursday's session before falling back to settle in a 4.57%-4.58% range.
Another focus is that employment indicators, which influence the Fed's rate decisions, were released before the market opened on Thursday.
The Labor Department announced that initial unemployment benefits claims for the week ended on December 21 fell 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted total of 219,000, below economists' forecasts of 224,000 claims.
Conversely, the post-initial-week-aid number of people receiving benefits, an employment indicator, rose by 46,000. The seasonally adjusted total for the week ending Dec. 14 hit 1.91 million, above estimates of 1.88 million and the highest since November 2021.
The different signals from the two figures support the Fed in taking a cautious approach, keeping interest rates stable while overseeing labor market trends.
#$Tesla Inc. Common Stock(TSLA)#$Nvidia Corp(NVDA)#$Alphabet Inc. Class C Capital Stock(GOOG)#$Arm Holdings plc American Depositary Shares(ARM)#$Apple Inc.(AAPL)