Caution and lack of movement were the two overriding themes on Wall Street on Thursday, with American stock indexes barely moving ahead of Friday’s January unemployment report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 11.05 points (0.09%) to a closing level of 12,705.41. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 gained, however, rising 11.41 (0.4%) and 1.47 (0.11%) to 2,859.68 and 1,325,56, respectively.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the House Budget Committee on Thursday and stated that the increasing government budget deficits were “unsustainable” and that they could cause deleterious ramifications for the economy. The current deficit is estimated to be at around $1.1 trillion.
The main unemployment report from the US government is due out tomorrow, and the rate is expected to hold at 8.5% for the month of January, but there were other figures released on Thursday. Weekly unemployment benefit claims fell to 367,000, down from 379,000, fueling some slight optimism on markets.
In earnings, pharmaceutical giant Merck slightly missed on sales estimates, but increased profits as compared to the fourth quarter one year ago and earned slightly more per share than anticipated. Still, the stock dropped on Thursday, but only by about one-third of a percent.
MasterCard rose 6.3% during the session as the credit card company reported earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, but lost almost half a billion dollars due to credit card fee litigation.
The biggest loser on the markets by far was Abercrombie & Fitch, as they reported fourth quarter earnings well below expectations and that they had experienced sales in the United States that were not as strong as they had anticipated. The retail store’s stock responded in kind by plummeting over 13% to a new 12-month low.
Crude oil continued to tumble on Thursday, losing approximately 1% of value to just about 96-and-a-half USD/bbl. Brent crude, on the other hand, experienced another rise, gaining almost three-quarters of a percent to 112.37/bbl. Natural gas has continued its recent wild swings as of late, gaining 6.63% to 2.54.
Gold prices have continued to rise, increasing by over two-thirds of a percent during the session to a new level of 1,761.60 USD/t Oz.
The Euro backed off slightly against the US Dollar during trading, only falling 0.13% to 1.3143 USD. The American dollar was unchanged against the Yen at 76.22 JPY, up slightly against the British Pound Sterling to 1.5802 USD, and up very slightly against the Canadian Dollar to 0.9992 CAD, with the two currencies remaining virtually equal.
