A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 4, 2022.
Source: NYSE
Stock futures fell in morning trading Thursday as the market is set to give back some of the gains during the holiday week.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 150 points. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.3%. The market was closed on Wednesday for Christmas Day.
The major averages could see their first down day this week after back-to-back gains. So far, the S&P 500 is up 1.8% this week, while the Dow has gained about 1%. The strong rally in megacap tech lifted the Nasdaq up 2.3% week to date.
Investors were enthusiastic about the so-called Santa Claus rally, which occurs in the last five trading days of the year and the first two in January. Since 1950, the S&P 500 has generated an average return of 1.3% during this period, widely outpacing the market’s average seven-day return of 0.3%, according to LPL Research. Thursday marks the second day of the Santa rally.
“The Santa Claus Rally may be alive and well. We’ll see, or it could be tough sledding,” Michael Zinn, UBS Wealth Management’s senior portfolio manager, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “It’s a sleepy time of year. The institutions aren’t really trading. It’s a little bit more retail driven. So what happens at the end of the year is not necessarily an indicator for how January and February.”
On the data front, jobless claims for the week ended Dec.21 totaled 219,000, compared to the 225,000 consensus forecast from Dow Jones. However, continuing claims, or recurring applications for unemployment benefits, rose to 1.91 million, reaching the highest level since Nov. 13, 2021.
Month to date, the S&P 500 is up by 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq has rallied 4.2%, thanks to the strong gains in Tesla, Apple and Alphabet. The blue-chip Dow, however, is down about 3.6% in the meantime, on track for its worst month since April.
Jobless claims little changed, but continuing claims at 3-year high
Initial filings for unemployment insurance were little changed last week, though the ranks of the long-term unemployed appeared to rise, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Jobless claims totaled 219,000 for the week ending Dec. 21, just 1,000 below the previous period and less than the 225,000 consensus forecast from Dow Jones.
However, continuing claims, which run a week behind, rose to 1.91 million, an increase of 46,000 and the highest level since Nov. 13, 2021.
Extended duration of unemployment has been on the rise for most of this year. Those out of work for 27 weeks or longer totaled 1.66 million in November, the highest since January 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
—Jeff Cox
Stocks making moves before the bell
Some stocks are making big moves in the premarket on Thursday:
- GameStop – Shares jumped more than 4%, extending their gains from Tuesday. The video game retailer has risen four straight days and climbed more than 77% in 2024.
- Crypto stocks – Stocks linked to the price of bitcoin moved lower as the cryptocurrency slid on Thursday. Shares of bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy fell about 3%, and crypto services provider Coinbase dropped about 2%. Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms pulled back more than 2%.
- Honda – U.S.-listed shares rose more than 4%, bringing this week’s advance to advance to about 14%, on the heels of merger talks announced at the start of the week with fellow Japanese automaker Nissan. The move also comes amid a rally among Asia-Pacific stocks following a report that Japan’s government is reportedly set to propose a record $735 billion budget.
Read here for the full list.
— Sean Conlon
Stocks head for winning week
Stocks are on track to finish the holiday-shortened trading week in the green as of Thursday morning.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite has led the way, advancing more than 2%. The broad S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow have each climbed more than 1%.
If those gains hold through Friday’s close, it would snap a three-week losing streak for the Dow. That has marked the Dow’s longest period of back-to-back weekly declines since March.
— Alex Harring
