Wall Street stocks continued to experience intense volatility as investors weighed stronger than expected fourth quarter GDP against the prospect of higher interest rates.
At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 7.31 points, or 0.02%, to 34,160.78. The S&P500 index fell 23.42 points, or 0.54%, to 4,326.51. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 189.34 points, or 1.4%, to 13,352.78.
Total shares volume turnover on U.S. exchanges stood at 10.70 billion shares, down from yesterday's 11.70 billion shares. Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE exchange by 2480 to 944 and 146 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 1042 issues advanced, 3861 issues declined, and 226 issues unchanged.
Total 5 of 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes declined, with bottom performing issues were communication services (down 2.27), real estate (down 1.75%), industrials (down 0.93%), and financials (down 0.92%), while top performing issues included energy (up 1.24%) and consumer staples (up 0.58%).
Among active stocks, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. declined 7.3%, Apple Inc fell 0.3%, Ford Motor Co fell 1.8%, Intel Corp fell 7.04%, and AT&T Inc fell 0.5%.
Among major gainers, Indonesia Energy Corp. rose 110.36%, National Security Group Inc. rose 69.65%, Sidus Space Inc. added 31.55%, Galapagos N.V. added 22.5%, and LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. added 20.68%.
Among major decliners, Knightscope Inc. declined 40.9%, TG Therapeutics Inc. fell 40.5%, Cyngn Inc. fell 36.47%, Advanced Human Imaging fell 33.8%, and LendingClub Corp. fell 29.2%.
ECONOMIC NEWS: US GDP Surge 6.9% In Q4- US real gross domestic product surged by 6.9% in the fourth quarter after jumping by 2.3% in the third quarter, preliminary data released by the Commerce Department on Thursday showed. The stronger than expected GDP growth was partly due to a massive surge in business inventories, which added 4.9%age points, the second largest contribution since 1987. The report also showed an acceleration in the pace of consumer spending, which shot up by 3.3% in the fourth quarter following a 2.0% advance in the third quarter. A spike in exports also contributed to the GDP growth in the fourth quarter, although the positive contribution was offset by a jump in imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP. The Commerce Department noted the pace of growth was also limited by decreases in both federal and state and local government spending. On the inflation front, the report showed the annual rate of growth in core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy, accelerated to 4.6% in the fourth quarter from 3.6% in third quarter, reaching the highest level since 1989.
US Durable Goods Orders Plunge In December- US durable goods orders slumped by 0.9% in December after soaring by an upwardly revised 3.2% in November, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday. The bigger than expected drop in durable goods orders came as orders for transportation equipment tumbled by 3.9% in December after surging by 8.2% in November. Orders for non-defense aircraft and parts helped lead the way lower, plummeting by 14.4% in December after skyrocketing by 41.9% in November. Excluding the steep drop in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders rose by 0.4% in December after jumping by 1.1% in November. Ex-transportation orders were expected to increase by 0.5%.
US Weekly Jobless Claims Pull Back To 260,000- Initial jobless claims in the US fell to 260,000 in the week ended January 22nd, a decrease of 30,000 from the previous week's revised level of 290,000, the Labor Department reported on Thursday, suggesting the impact of the Omicron variant on the labour market is starting to recede. With the decrease, jobless claims gave back ground after reaching their highest level since the week ended October 16th.
US NAR Pending Home Sales Fall 3.8% In December- US pending home sales plunged by 3.8% to 117.7 in December after sinking by 2.3% to a downwardly revised 122.3 in November, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Thursday. A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
Among Indian ADR, Tata Motors added 3% to $32.70, INFOSYS sank 2.6% to $21.81, Wipro fell 3.2% to $7.08, Dr Reddys Labs sank 4.75% to $55.33, and HDFC Bank declined 1.83% to $64.78. Azure Power Global fell 4.15% to $13.61 and WNS Holdings sank 1.36% to $81.87. ICICI Bank rose 0.05% to $20.88.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
