Symbol	Name	Price		Change	%Change
DJIA	Dow Industrials	18493.06		-77.79	-0.42%
S& P 500	S& P 500 Index	2168.48		-6.55	-0.30%
NASDAQ	NASDAQ	5097.63		-2.53	-0.05%

 

 

Symbol	Name	Price		Change	%Change
DJIA	Dow Industrials	18517.23		-77.80	-0.42%
S& P 500	S& P 500 Index	2165.17		-7.85	-0.36%
NASDAQ	NASDAQ	5073.90		-16.03	-0.31%

 

US stocks close lower, Dow snaps 9-day winning streak

U.S. stocks closed lower Thursday, snapping the Dow' s nine-day winning streak, as oil prices weighed and the market consolidated ahead of next week' s Fed meeting.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed nearly half a percent lower as Goldman Sachs led the index down and McDonald' s had the most positive impact. The S & P 500 closed down fractionally, and health care and utilities were the only sectors in the green. The Nasdaq fell 16 points.

" We always like to say the market needs to digest its gains, and we' ve been due for a bit of a pullback," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial. " I think the market is on hold waiting to see what that Fed statement is going to say. "

The Federal Open Market Committee meets next week, and recent Fed funds futures rates showed an uptick in investors' rate hike expectations, according to the CME Group' s FedWatch tool.

U.S. WTI oil futures settled down more than 2 percent, below $ 45 a barrel. Brent crude oil futures settled down 2.06 percent at $ 46.20, after hitting a two-month intraday low a day earlier.

" I think the primary move is oil," said Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS. " Oil started going down in mid-morning, and that started putting pressure on things."

Solid U.S. economic data in recent weeks has also helped investor confidence. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to a three-month low last week, in a sign that the labor market is stabilizing.

" This is the first indication that job growth in July was also pretty good," JP Morgan' s Kelly said " The economic narrative remains the same . The economy is not growing fast but it' s growing fast enough to cause the labor market to tighten. "

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 253,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters expected claims to rise to 265,000.

Claims are near a 43-year low, hit in mid-April, Reuters reported.

" The better jobs number was a fundamental catalyst when you look at what happened in the market after," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist and senior vice president at Charles Schwab. Sonders highlighted the June nonfarm payroll number, which exceeded expectations with a headline figure of 287,000.

" This market rally had more to do with economic sentiment than anything," she said.

European stocks moved lower after the European Central Bank left key interest rates unchanged Thursday. The non-move was widely expected but further policy stimulus from global central banks is thought to be coming in the months following June' s Brexit vote.

Then yen hit new lows after news that Tokyo was considering a 20 trillion yen package of stimulus to bolster the economy. The currency later recovered 1 percent as Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told the BBC radio that there is no need for " helicopter money" to fight inflation, and the central bank already had mechanisms in place to ease further if needed.

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