Stocks Rebound After 5 Days of Losses, Jobless Claims Rise for 8th Week

Barry Adams
08 Dec, 2022
New York City

Stocks opened higher on Wall Street as investors continue to weigh the economic slowdown outlook against how high rates have to rise to bring down the inflation to 2%. 

Investor sentiment has oscillated between soft landing and stagflation scenarios as the Federal Reserve's monetary policy battles stubborn inflation. 

Major averages the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite indexes have declined for five days in a row and investors are hoping that the Federal Reserve will moderate rate increase to 50 basis points after the policy meeting next week.  

The S&P 500 index increased 0.8% to 3,965.61 and the Nasdaq Composite index advanced 1.1% to 11,082.18. 

 

Crude Oil Rebounds, Gasoline at One-year Low 

The unleaded gasoline price at pump stations fell to $3.329 a gallon, below the $3.343 price a year ago despite geopolitical tensions in Europe and OPEC+ production cuts, AAA said Thursday.

Crude oil traded higher $1.75 to $73.79 a barrel and natural gas increased 21 cents to $5.93 a thermal unit. 

 

Treasury Yields Stay Near 2-month Low  

The U.S. Treasury note yields inched higher but traded near 2-month lows and the spread between 2-year and 10-year debt held at 0.8 percentage points. 

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes increased to 4.30%, 10-year Treasury notes inched up to 3.37% and 30-year Treasury bonds edged up to 3.45%. 

 

Weekly Jobless Claims Rise 

Initial jobless claims increased to 230,000 and continuing claims rose 62,000 to 1.67 million for the week ending November 26, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.

Continuing claims increased for the eighth week in a row and the claims were the largest since early February. 

 

U.S. Stock Movers 

GameStop Corp increased 8.4% to $24.13 after the game console retailer said fiscal third quarter revenue fell 8.5% to $1.18 billion and net loss shrank to $94.7 million from $105.4 million and diluted loss per share fell to 31 cents from 35 cents a year ago.

In the quarter, cash flow from operating activities swung to $177 million from outflow of $293.7 million a year ago reflecting lower investment in inventories.  

Ciena Corporation soared 19.4% to $51.64 after the telecom gear maker said revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter fell 6.8% to $971 million and net income plunged to $57.6 million from $103.5 million or 39 cents to from 66 cents a year ago.

Express, Inc soared 31.2% to $1.28 after the company said revenue in the fiscal third quarter declined 8% to $434.1 million and net loss increased to $34.4 million from $13.1 million or 50 cents per share from 90 cents a year ago.

The company also amended and increased its revolving credit facility by $40 million to $290 million and expanded the term loan facility by $50 million to $140 million.  

The struggling retailer and WHM Global also struck an intellectual property partnership and WHM plans to invest $235 million for a 60% stake. 

WHM also agreed to acquire 5.4 million shares of the company priced at $4.60 a share, representing pro forma 7.4% stake in the company.