New York (AFP)
Wall Street was down slightly on Thursday after figures showing the number of Americans registered as unemployed rebounded last week, as the economies of many states slowed with the surge in Covid-19 cases.
Around 1:55 p.m. GMT, its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.19% to 26,953.31 points.
The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, lost 0.03% to 10,703.22 points.
The extended S&P 500 index dropped less than one point at 3,275.96 points.
The New York Stock Exchange ended in the green Wednesday in a market welcoming the decision of the US government to invest in a vaccine project against the virus and awaiting the adoption of new measures to support the economy: the Dow Jones was rose 0.62% and the Nasdaq 0.24%.
Just over 1.4 million new unemployment claims were filed between July 12 and July 18, up from 1.307 million the week before, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.
This is the first time that weekly registrations have increased since their slow decline that began in early April.
"The increase is not huge, but it suggests that the slowdown in the restart has hurt the economy," notes Chris Low of FHN Financial.
"The economic recovery is stalling for now as the concrete list of what can and cannot be done without risk during a pandemic becomes more and more precise," added Mr. Low.
Wall Street also continued to closely monitor the quarterly results of large companies.
Tuesday after the close, Microsoft reported better than expected revenues, but its license sales continued to slow and its subsidiary LinkedIn, a famous professional social network, suffered from the weakness of the job market. Microsoft's stock was down 1.03%.
On the other hand, Tesla (+ 0.81%) made a profit for the fourth consecutive quarter and its boss Elon Musk announced that the manufacturer of high-end electric vehicles would open a new plant in the United States, in Texas.
On the bond market, the 10-year US debt rate fell to 0.5840% against 0.5971% Wednesday evening.
© 2020 AFP