US stocks close mixed as retail earnings point to consumer resilience but inflation concerns persist
- The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended Thursday higher but the Dow Industrials decline in Thursday's mixed performance.
- Macy's and Kohl's soared while Cisco weighed negatively on the blue-chips gauge.
US stocks closed Thursday's session mixed, with technology and retail shares leading the S&P 500 higher and the market generally finding support from economic data that pointed to resilience by consumers and manufacturers in the face of high inflation and supply chain problems.
The consumer discretionary sector was the best performing on the S&P 500. Retail stocks stood out, with Macy's and Kohl's surging after pushing well past quarterly earnings expectations and issuing bullish outlooks as the crucial holiday shopping season gets underway. They follow earnings from Target and Walmart that also beat estimates this week.
But Cisco shares slid, pressuring the Dow index, after soft fiscal second-quarter guidance from the networking equipment maker.
Here's where US indexes stood at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday:
- S&P 500: 4,704.54, up 0.34%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 35,870.95, down 0.17% (60.10 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 15,993.71, up 0.45%
The indexes gained early Thursday after the Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment benefits edged down to 268,000 last week, suggesting the world's largest economy is generating jobs even in the face of multi-year high inflation. The seventh straight decline was ahead of the 260,000 claims economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Continuing claims, which count Americans applying for further unemployment insurance, dipped to 2.08 million, the lowest level since COVID-19 lockdowns began in March 2020.
Meanwhile, data showed manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic area leapt in November, with the Philly Fed index jumping to 39.0 from 23.8, above a consensus estimate of 24.0.
Around the markets, gold fell 0.5% to $1,858.37 per ounce. The 10-year yield slipped to 1.587%.
Oil prices were mixed. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.6% at $78.82 per barrel. Brent, oil's international benchmark, shed 0.1% at $81.20.
Bitcoin fell by 4% to $57,959.92.