The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders reacted to conflicting reports regarding Gilead Sciences' (GILD) potential coronavirus treatment remdesivir, the hoped-for treatment for the illness derived from the novel strain of coronavirus, may not be successful in early trials.
The Labor Department's report on initial jobless claims hit 4.427 million in the week ended April 18, a decrease of 810,000 from the previous week's revised level of 5.237 million, but pushing the metric's five-week total above 26 million. Jobless claims remain at a substantially elevated level due to the coronavirus-induced economic shutdown.
Also, separate data showed that US new home sales plunged by 15.4% to an annual rate of 627,000 in March after tumbling by 4.6% to a revised rate of 741,000 in February. With the steep drop, new home sales pulled back further off the more than twelve-year high of 777,000 set in January. New home sales in the Northeast and West led the way lower, plummeting by 41.5% and 38.5%, respectively. Sales in the Midwest also slumped by 8.1%, while sales in the South dipped by 0.8%. The report also said the median sales price of new houses sold in March was $321,400, down 2.6% from $330,100 in February but up 3.5% from $310,600 in the same month a year ago.
In commodities, June crude futures for West Texas Intermediate oil rocketed 20% to settle at $16.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after President Donald Trump tweeted that the US would "shoot down and destroy" Iranian gunboats if they harassed American ships.
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