US stocks erase gains, close negative after Trump announces Friday press conference on China
- US stocks erased earlier gains and closed negative on Thursday after President Donald Trump announced he will hold a press conference on Friday regarding China.
- The early-day gains came as investors cheered positive trends emerging in Thursday's jobless claims report.
- Continuing claims contracted for the first time since early March, fueling optimism that the worst of the coronavirus economic fallout has passed.
- China's approval of controversial national security laws in Hong Kong also raised concerns of a new conflict between the country and the US.
- Watch major indexes update live here.
US stocks erased gains and turned negative in the final hours of trading on Thursday after President Donald Trump said he will hold a press conference on Friday regarding China.
Investors have been weighing China's approval of controversial new national security laws in Hong Kong. The move follows Trump threatening retaliation and the US attempting to hold a United Nations Security Council meeting on the legislation.
The White House also announced Wednesday it would no longer recognize Hong Kong's political autonomy from China, ratcheting up tensions across the three economic powers.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET market close on Thursday:
- S&P 500: 3,029.73, down 0.2%
- Dow Jones industrial average: 25,400.64, down 0.6% (148 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 9,368.99, down 0.5%
Markets rallied through most of the afternoon as investors cheered positive trends emerging from the latest jobless claims report.
Jobless claims for the week ended Saturday reached 2.1 million, the Labor Department announced Thursday. The reading matched economists' median estimate and brought the metric's 10-week total to 40.7 million. The number of new filings has now dropped for eight consecutive weeks.
Continuing claims, which cover the share of Americans receiving unemployment benefits — fell to 21 million from 25 million in the week ended May 16. The decline is the first since early March and suggests the job market may be recovering as lockdowns are relaxed.
"US stocks should continue their painstaking climb up a treacherous wall of geopolitical uncertainty, supported by unlimited stimulus and as investors rotate back into value stocks," Ed Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, said. "The jobs data is still disheartening but some positives can be taken away from today's release."
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Tech stocks slid as investors waited for President Donald Trump to sign an executive order disciplining social media companies for their content moderation methods. The president recently fired back at Twitter after the company began fact-checking his tweets.
Oil prices rallied. West Texas Intermediate crude rose as much as 4.3%, to $34.21 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international standard, gained 3.5%, to $35.95 per barrel, at intraday highs.
Corporate bond sales tore past the $1 trillion threshold on Thursday at the fastest pace in history, fueled by the Federal Reserve's emergency programs and surging liquidity needs. The same level wasn't breached last year until November, and only about $548 billion in bond sales had taken place at the same time last year.
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Thursday's session follows major gains through the shortened trading week. The Dow climbed 553 points on Wednesday as investors grew more optimistic toward the chance of a swift economic recovery.
The S&P 500 closed above 3,000 for the first time since early March last session. Stocks that had been slammed hardest by previous months' sell-offs, including airline companies, cruise lines, and banks, all surged on positive reopening sentiments.
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