Investing.com– U.S. main indexes saw a lower opening on Thursday as the market resumed trading after Christmas holiday.
The New York Stock Exchange closed early on Tuesday for Christmas Eve, and the market was shut on Christmas Day. Trading volumes were expected to be thin for the remaining sessions in a holiday-shortened week.
After the market opened, the S&P 500 fell 0.24% to 6,025.80 points, and the NASDAQ Composite was down 0.22% to 19,986.95, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.31% to 43,164.44 points, as of 9:45 AM ET (14:45 GMT).
Jobless claims in U.S. dip to one-month low
The weekly U.S. jobless claims data released before the market opened on Thursday and saw a one-month low dip.
The Labor Department reported a decrease of 1,000 in initial applications for state unemployment benefits, bringing the seasonally adjusted figure to 219,000 for the week that ended on December 21. This figure is lower than the 224,000 claims that economists had predicted for the same week.
Meanwhile, the number of individuals receiving benefits after their first week of aid, which serves as an indication of hiring, increased by 46,000. This brought the seasonally adjusted total to 1.910 million for the week that ended on December 14, the highest since November 2021. Economists had previously anticipated the number of these continued claims to be 1.880 million.
Tech stocks mostly downwards
The major tech giants were mostly down after the markets opened, with only Apple showing a positive track.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell 0.76%, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) was down 0.5%, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) 0.9%, while Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was down at 0.4%.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained 0.1%. Wedbush raised its price target on Apple to $325 from $300 banking on transformative AI-driven iPhone upgrade cycle poised to fuel growth into 2025. The brokerage maintained its “outperform” rating, projecting Apple’s market cap to cross the $4 trillion mark.
Last week’s Fed-induced slump
The U.S. Federal Reserve projected fewer-than-expected cuts in 2025 last week. This had led to sharp falls in all three major indexes in the previous week and a weekly decline on Wall Street.
The Fed signaled a cautious approach to monetary policy adjustments, emphasizing the need for continued progress on inflation before considering further rate cuts.
Markets scaled back rate cut expectations after the Fed meeting, pricing in just two more cuts in the upcoming year.
Wall Street gradually shrugged off rate outlook concerns after PCE inflation data came in slightly softer than expected.