U.S. Market Indexes and Treasury Yields Retain Downward Bias

Barry Adams
07 Dec, 2023
New York City

U.S. stocks traded lower and extended the recent downturn after rallying in five previous weeks.

The S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite lacked direction as investors stayed on the sidelines and awaited additional employment reports.

Market indexes have rallied for five weeks in a row after the Federal Reserve held interest rates and three inflation indicators suggested cooling trends.

Moreover, the latest job openings report also showed employers are trimming new job announcements, and private employers added fewer than expected new jobs in November, suggesting that the labor market is cooling.

Investors are looking ahead to the release of the November nonfarm employment report on Friday, and economists surveyed by Ticker.com are estimating that the economy added about 175,000 net new jobs.

Treasury yields continued to decline and eased to the levels last seen in early September, and the yield on 10-year Treasury notes dropped below 4.20%.

 

U.S. Indexes and Yields

The S&P 500 index gained 0.1% to 4,571.39, and the Nasdaq Composite increased 0.3% to 14,249.41.

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes increased to 4.63%, 10-year Treasury notes inched higher to 4.15%, and 30-year Treasury bonds increased to 4.26%.

Crude oil increased $0.40 to $69.79 a barrel, and natural gas prices fell 7 cents to $2.48 a thermal unit.

Gold increased $7.17 to $2,032.05 an ounce on shifting investors' expectations that the Federal Reserve is more likely to cut rates sooner than expected in 2024.

The dollar index, which weighs the U.S. dollar against a basket of foreign currencies, edged lower to 103.98.

 

U.S. Stock Movers

Chewy declined 10.8% to $17.25 after the online pet food and products store reported weaker-than-expected revenue and the loss expanded in the quarter.

ChargePoint Holdings fell 3.9% to $1.97 after the electric vehicle infrastructure company reported weaker-than-expected revenue of $110 million in the third quarter.

Dollar General Corp. increased 2.8% to $137.70 after the deep discount retailer reported better-than-expected quarterly results and reaffirmed its fiscal year outlook for earnings and comparable sales.

GameStop Corp. decreased 8.8% to $13.54 after the specialty retailer reported a slight decline in quarterly sales from a year ago.