After Wild Swings Indexes Closed Down

Barry Adams
06 May, 2022
New York City

U.S. market indexes opened lower and quickly fell 2.4% after thirty minutes of trading. 

In volatile trading, major indexes lacked direction but generally traded lower than Thursday's close. 

Indexes breached the positive line briefly around 11:20 a.m. for eight minutes and again around 1:04 p.m. for less than two minutes. 

Stocks fell lower in the afternoon, before turning higher just before 3:26 p.m. 

At close, the S&P 500 index fell 0.56% or 23.20 points and the Nasdaq Composite index dropped 1.4% or 173.03 points.

For the week, the S&P 500 index declined 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.1%. 

The U.S. stocks decline on Thursday erased more than the gains in Wednesday's trading on the worries that the Fed's response to the latest bout of inflation is not going to fall short as the labor market conditions remain tight.  

The jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor released today indicated employment increased 428,000 in April and jobless rate was 3.6% matching the rate in March. 

Employers added jobs for the twelfth month in a row but labor participation rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 62.2% and available labor force shrank by 363,000. 

Wage gains may be easing after the jobs report showed that private sector hourly rate gains increased 5.5% in the 12-month to April, a decline from 5.6% in the same period to March. 

Bausch & Lomb jumped 10% to $19.75 after the company priced its initial public offering at $18 a share, sharply lower than the expected range of $21 to $24. 

UnderArmour plunged more than 19% after the apparel company reported adjusted profit of 1 cents below the estimated range between 3 and 6 cents. The company also issued a weaker-than-expected outlook. 

Zillow Group fell 15% after the real estate broker reported strong quarterly results but issued weak annual outlook. 

DoorDash Inc gained 2% after the delivery company reported better-than-expected quarterly results and the orders delivered rose 23% from a year ago to 402 million. 

Revenues rose 35% to $1.5 billion and gross marketplace volume increased 25% to $12.4 billion. 

Crude oil increased $1.96 to $110.22 a barrel and the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bond increased to 3.12%. 

Hungary held up the latest EU sanctions on Russian oil ban and demanded more time and money. 

The union of 27 nations must agree to place any sanctions and is ready to impose its sixth round of sanctions on Russia. 

In Europe, the DAX index and the CAC-40 index declined 1.6% and the FTSE index fell 1.5% after the Bank of England yesterday estimated that the elevated energy prices are pushing the U.K. economy to a sharp slowdown. 

In Asian markets, the Nikkei index edged up 0.7% but the indexes in Hong Kong declined 3.8% and in Shanghai dropped 2.2%. 

Markets in China were on the defensive after top Chinese leaders issued strongly worded public comments in support of the zero-Covid policy.  

 China's premier Xi Jinping and other top leaders reiterated strong support for zero-Covid policy and sent strongest warnings to anyone doubting the government's commitment to zero-Covid policy. 

Dozens of cities in China are going through severe restrictions or lockdowns. 

In a broad sell-off in Mumbai, banks led the losers and small and mid-cap indexes also dropped more than 1%. 

The rupee declined 57 cents to 76.92 against one U.S. dollar.