Wall Street opens in the red amid unexpected rise in jobless claims

The main indices on Wall Street began Thursday’s session on the back foot amid an unexpected rise in weekly jobless claims in the US. Shortly after the opening bell, the Down Jones Industrial Average was down 1.06% at 34,313 while the S&P 500 dropped 1.24% to 4,304 and the Nasdaq fell 1.57% to 14,434. The downturn followed US jobless claims data for last week which showed 373,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits, up from 371,000 the previous week and higher than the 350,000 predicted by analysts. Despite this, continuing claims came in at 3.34mln, lower than the 3.35mln expected. Analysts at Pantheon said that while the rise was unexpected, the figure was “noise, not signal” and that market consensus had “ignored the tendency for unadjusted claims to rise in weeks when July 4 falls on a Sunday”. “The seasonal adjustments are struggling simultaneously with the July 4 holiday period and the annual automakers’ retooling shutdowns, which can make the headline numbers even more volatile than usual. The noise will persist through late July, but we have no doubt that the underlying trend will remain downwards. Laying-off staff now is risky, because if business turns out to be better than expected, re-hiring people will be difficult and likely expensive, given the tightness of the labor market”, Pantheon added. 8:00am: Wall Street set to retreat Wall Street stocks are predicted to join a retreat in global markets on Thursday as risk appetite among traders showed signs of decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is predicted to drop around 1.39% at the opening bell later, while the S&P 500 is expected to fall 1.38% and the Nasdaq is forecast to sink 1.41%. The 'risk off' mood has been seen outside equities too, points out market analyst Fawad Razaqzada at ThinkMarkets, with US futures, crude oil and copper prices all weakening, while the safe-haven currencies of the Japanese yen and Swiss franc rallying. “Bond prices continued to rise, causing their yields to fall further with the 10-year US Treasury dipping to 1.25%, its lowest since 16 February. “The falling yields weighed on banks with Barclays shedding nearly 4% to make it one of the worst performing stock on the FTSE 100. Gold found some mild support on the back of falling yields and risk-off tone. Will US investors save the day once again and buy this latest dip, or is this the start of a more meaningful correction?” So, what is going on? Razaqzada says: “This morning certainly, investors didn’t appear to be in a cheerful mood. It looks like optimism over a sharp global recovery has been replaced by mild fears that growth is nearing a peak and that central banks are likely to slowly taper their emergency stimulus measures. “Rising cases of the delta variant of Covid-19 has weighed on the recovery prospects, with Japan officially declaring state of emergency for Tokyo just two weeks before the Olympics.” With the drop in yields said to be indicative of the death of what's called the reflation trade, he wonders whether this is to do with a big fall in commodity prices of late. “This week’s big drop in oil prices has certainly reduced inflation concerns a little. Tapering concerns are also weighing on the markets. The FOMC’s last meeting minutes, released Wednesday, more or less confirmed policymakers are ready to taper QE, even though officials still felt that substantial further progress on the US economic recovery 'was generally seen as not having yet been met'.” Four things to watch for on Thursday: Companies reporting earnings today include jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co (NYSE:LEVI), software group Duck Creek Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:DCT) and homeware and beauty products maker Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) Shares in Google parent Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) could draw attention following news that the tech giant is facing yet another antitrust lawsuit in the US targeting its Play Store app marketplace Meanwhile, electric car maker Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) may be in focus following the release of a cheaper version of its Model Y in the Chinese market On the macro front, aside from weekly jobless claims some traders may be interested in some updates to the US oil and natural gas stocks and fuel production