Wall Street ends lower after weak jobs data

Wall Street closed lower Thursday as hopes for fresh fiscal stimulus ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s pandemic aid proposal were pitted against a weakening labor market.

Fred Katayama reports.

Wall Street ended lower Thursday after a disappointing jobs report.

The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing new jobless claims rose to 965,000 last week.

That was much more than economists had expected.

The S&P 500 fell four-tenths percent, the Dow shed a fifth of a percent, and the Nasdaq lost a tenth of a percent.

Investors now turn their attention to President-elect Joe Biden who is scheduled to deliver a massive pandemic relief proposal in a highly anticipated speech later Thursday.

National Securities chief market strategist Art Hogan said Wall Street high expectations.

“1-1/2 trillion.

We need to see something north of that.

But I think consensus and anything south of consensus would be disappointing, and I think this is a market that is planning on at least 1-1/2 trillion dollars of additional fiscal policy stimulus.” Airline stocks gained ground.

Delta Air Lines CEO said 2021 would be “the year of recovery” after the pandemic drove his company to post its first annual loss in 11 years.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing sparked a rally in chip stocks.

The chip makers’ U.S. shares shot up nearly 6% after the company posted its best-ever quarterly profit and lifted its estimates for revenue and capital spending.

U.S.-listed shares of China’s Alibaba and Baidu also rose.

Sources said the Trump administration scrapped its plans to blacklist the Chinese tech giants and shelved its plans to ban investment in the companies.

Earnings season kicks off Friday with reports from some major U.S. banks: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.