Trader on the New York Stock Exchange, June 2, 2021.
Source: NYSE
Cyclical stocks lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average from its lows on Thursday and closed the session near the downside, while better-than-expected job data supported sentiment.
The blue-chip Dow closed just 23.34 points, or less than 0.1%, at 34,577.04 after losing 265 points from its session low. The S&P 500 lost 0.4% to 4,192.85 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 1% to 13,614.51.
The S&P 500 benchmark is about 1% off its all-time high hit early last month, but it has remained at that level for about two weeks. The S&P 500 is up more than 11% so far this year.
Merck and Dow Inc. were the top two performers in the 30-stock benchmark, both up more than 2%. Consumer staples and utilities were the biggest winners among the 11 S&P 500 sectors, while consumer discretionary and technology weighed on the broader market, falling 1.2% and 0.9% respectively.
General Motors shares rose nearly 6.4% after the company announced it would hit its results for the first half of 2021 “significantly better” than its previous projections.
On the data front, private employment growth accelerated the fastest in nearly a year in May, as companies hired nearly a million workers, according to a report by payroll firm ADP on Thursday.
The total new hire was 978,000 for the month, a huge jump from 654,000 in April and the largest increase since June 2020. Economists polled by Dow Jones had searched for 680,000.
Meanwhile, initial jobless claims for the week ending May 29 were 385,000, up from a Dow Jones estimate of 393,000. It was also the first time jobless claims fell below 400,000 since the early days of the pandemic.
“With ADP kicking it out of the park and jobless claims breaking the 400,000 mark – a pandemic low – all eyes will be on the bigger picture of jobs tomorrow,” said Mike Loewengart, a managing director at E-Trade. “With all systems seemingly working on the job front, the economy is showing some very real signs that this is not just a comeback – a mode of expansion could be on the horizon.”
According to economists polled by Dow Jones, the market could be on hold ahead of the job report released on Friday, which is expected to show an additional 671,000 non-agricultural payrolls in May. The economy created 266,000 jobs in April.
Investors continued to watch the wild action in meme stocks, particularly theater chain AMC Entertainment. The stock plunged up to 30% after practically doubling in the previous session, but the stock reduced its losses after the cinema chain said it closed a stock offering a few hours ago that raised $ 587 million. The stock ended the day around 18% lower.
Other meme stocks also came under pressure on Thursday. Bed Bath & Beyond fell more than 27%. The SoFi Social 50 ETF (SFYF), which tracks the 50 most widely used US publicly traded stocks on SoFi’s retail brokerage platform, slumped more than 6%.
In memory of what happened earlier this year, the joint rally of retailers on Reddit sparked a short squeeze on AMC earlier this week. S3 Partners said short sellers betting against the stock lost $ 2.8 billion on Wednesday as stocks rose. So their losses since the beginning of the year amount to more than 5 billion US dollars, according to S3. If it continues to recover, short sellers are forced to buy back the stock to reduce their losses.
GameStop’s meme stock bubble earlier this year weighed a little on the market as investors feared there was too much speculative activity in the stock market. As losses in hedge funds, which bet against the stock increased, worries mounted about a decline in risk appetite on Wall Street that could hit the broader market. AMC’s recent surge so far didn’t seem to raise any similar concerns.
