The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up on Wednesday morning, as anticipation of strong jobs data spurred gains in futures. The major indices were tracking sharply higher after a mixed session earlier in the day.
The “stock market futures today” is an indicator that the stock market will be up in the next few days. The jobs report, which is released tomorrow, could help the stock market.
Investors expected news on whether the recent increase of Covid-19 infections is harming the job economy, so stock futures in the United States nudged up.
The S&P 500 futures rose 0.2 percent on Thursday after the broad market index hit a new high the day before. Futures for the Nasdaq-100, which is centered on technology, were up 0.2 percent, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.1 percent.
The “Santa Claus rally” occurs when stocks increase during the final five trading days of the year and the first two trading days of the new year. According to Dow Jones Market Data, the S&P 500 has finished up 77 percent of the time since 1950, with an average gain of 1.3 percent.
Despite the fact that the number of Covid-19 cases in the United States has reached an all-time high, some investors believe that high vaccination rates and indicators of milder symptoms produced by the Omicron variation imply the economy will escape the chaos that occurred at the outset of the pandemic. Many decision-makers are more concerned with hospitalizations than with cases, and they want to avoid harsher punishments.
With many investors away for the holidays, lower-than-average trading volumes might result in bumpy trading or outsized market changes.
“We’re grinding upward on the equities side,” Des Lawrence, a senior investment strategist with State Street Global Advisors, said. “Markets seem to be more steady, but liquidity is quite thin at the moment, and volumes are extremely small.”
On Wednesday, U.S. market indices set new highs.
Associated Press photo by Seth Wenig
Biogen’s stock sank 6% in premarket trade after Samsung Biologics said a media rumor that it was preparing to purchase the business was “not genuine.” Didi Global’s stock declined more than 3% in premarket trading after the ride-hailing company reported a dip in third-quarter revenue.
Investors are waiting for news on unemployment claims in the United States, which have been at decade lows in recent weeks. This suggests a tight labor market, with companies clinging to their employees despite worries about the Omicron coronavirus type. When the numbers for the week ending Dec. 25 are revealed at 8:30 a.m. ET, economists polled by The Wall Street Journal predict first-time applications for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, to remain around that level.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.532 percent from 1.542 percent on Wednesday in bond markets. Yields and prices move in opposite directions.
The Turkish lira dropped 3% versus the US dollar. Despite the Turkish government’s experimental strategy to stabilize the currency, it has continued to fall in recent days. Due to strong inflation and newly decreased interest rates, investors and experts anticipate the lira to devalue even further.
Overseas, the Stoxx Europe 600 index increased by 0.3 percent. Asia’s indices ended the day with mixed results. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.6 percent, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.1 percent. The Kospi in South Korea sank 0.5 percent, while the Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.4 percent.
Caitlin Ostroff can be reached at [email protected]
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