U.S. Indexes Fall In Volatile Trading Tracking Lower Oil

Bridgette Randall
06 Jul, 2022
New York City

U.S. stocks edged lower and energy prices continued to slide reacting to the rising expectations of economic slowdown. 

The S&P 500 index decreased 0.5% to 3,809.92 and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.6% to 11,256.71. 

Futures of crude oil declined 3.5% to $96.01 a barrel and natural gas eased 5.8 cents to $5.48 a unit. 

The labor market conditions remained tight at the end of spring according to the latest employment situation report from the U.S. Department of Labor. 

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes increased to 2.88% and mortgage rates dropped for the second week in a row. 

Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loans declined to 5.74% from 5.84% in the previous week, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. 

The origination and other fees rose to 0.65 percentage points from 0.64 for the loans with 20% down payment  in the previous week, the press release noted. 

The number of job openings decreased 6.9% to 11.3 million on the last business day of May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

Total hires in May were nearly unchanged at 6.5 million and separations were also unchanged at 6.0 million in May. 

Hires totaled 78.4 million and separations totaled 72.0 million, yielding a net employment gain of 6.4 million, over 12 months to May.  

These totals include workers who may have been hired and separated more than once during the year.

Investors are looking ahead to the release of the Fed's latest minutes of meeting at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon.

Amazon.com, Inc declined 0.7% to $112.84 after the company added one year free delivery from Grubhub.com for its prime members. 

Separately, the U.K. antitrust regulator is investigating the retailer if the company is offering an unfair advantage to its own sellers over third-party sellers. 

Microsoft increased 0.2% to $263.32 and the company's $68 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is facing an antitrust investigation from the U.K. regulator.