Shares ended lower on Thursday as bond yields resumed their rise and profits from retail giant Walmart (WMT) – Get the report disappointed.
Shares were also lower after a Department of Labor report said weekly unemployment claims in the United States rose more than expected. Unemployment claims rose to 861,000, the highest reading in a month.
The ten-year Treasury yield rose to 1.318%, close to its one-year high. Rising yields have raised concerns about higher inflation and fears that rising debt costs could lead to a stock market downturn.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 119 points, 0.38%, to 31,493 and the S&P 500 fell 0.44%. Walmart (WMT) – Get the report and Boeing (BA) – Get the report brought down the Dow industrialists.
The high-tech Nasdaq fell 0.72%, as technology-related companies may be more vulnerable to inflationary pressures.
Walmart shares ended 6.4% after the world’s largest retailer posted weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings on sales of more than $ 150 billion.
Walmart also said it expected fiscal sales for 2022 to increase by just a percentage of low digits, with operating revenues and slight profits rising slightly.
Walmart pledged to raise average employee salaries to $ 15 per hour and increase total capital expenditures to $ 14 billion.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve said within minutes of the late January meeting that the coronavirus pandemic still poses “considerable risks” to the economy and that “the policy stance should remain accommodative until achieve these goals “.
The Fed added that it would take “some time” before conditions allowed it to begin reducing its purchase of $ 120 billion in monthly bonds.
The minutes also showed that Fed officials were not terribly concerned about recent inflationary pressures. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has warned that inflation could rise, but only temporarily, as the economy reopens.
Energy prices rose again on Thursday, with Brent crude trading at around $ 64 a barrel, as a freeze in Texas has accounted for nearly 40 percent of U.S. crude production, according to Bloomberg.
The Dow posted a record close for a second day in mixed trading on Wednesday as US retail sales and production prices rose in January and bond yields traded at one-year highs .
GameStop (GME) – Get the report it fell 11% as the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing focused on the recent trade frenzy surrounding the video game retailer’s actions and other very short actions.
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