Wall Street ends day sharply lower amid risk aversion
Major equity indexes in the U.S. recorded heavy losses on Thursday as the private sector employment data accompanied by the geopolitical tension surrounding the situation in North Korea hurt the investors' sentiment.
- Forex today: dollar drops with a shift in euro yields outpacing UST yields
According to the data released by ADP, private sector employment growth eased to 158K in May, missing the market expectation of 185K, pointing to further tightening conditions in the labor market and hurting the prospect of a solid NFP reading tomorrow. Moreover, weekly jobless claims increased for the third week in a row as it rose to by 248K from 244K.
Commenting on the situation in North Korea, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. would confront North Korea 'very strongly' and urged other countries to show that this aggression would not stand.
Although the energy shares helped the indexes correct some of their early losses after the EIA report showed a surprisingly large increase in crude oil stocks, the fact that the barrel of WTI erased the majority of its daily gains forced the S%p 500 energy index to lose more than 1%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 158.13 points, or 0.75%, to 21,320.04, the Nasdaq Composite lost 61 points, or 1%, to 6,089.46 and the S&P 500 dropped 19.75 points, or 0.8%, to 2,408.25.
Headlines from the U.S. session:
- Summary of nonfarm payrolls expectations - Nomura
- Seoul supports a new UN sanctions resolution targeting North Korea - UOB
- US: ISM Non-Manufacturing Index recovers in June - Wells Fargo
- US: Real net exports could exert a small drag on Q2 GDP growth - Wells Fargo
- Atlanta Fed: Forecast for GDP growth in Q2 of 2017 eased to 2.7%
- EIA: U.S. commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 6.3 mln barrels
- US: Economic activity in non-manufacturing sector grew in June for 90th consecutive month - ISM
- US: Business activity in service sector increased at fastest pace since January in June - Markit
- US: Private sector employment increased by 158,000 jobs in June - ADP