NEW YORK (AP) — A massive rally in U.S. stocks lost momentum Thursday as Wall Street counted down Friday's big jobs report. There was more activity in the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin briefly soaring to a record above $103,000 before falling back.
The S&P 500 is down 0.2% from the previous day's all-time high (56th of the year), just below what was considered one of the best years of the millennium. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 248 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2% from its own record set the previous day.
Overnight, Bitcoin soared above $100,000 for the first time after President-elect Donald Trump selected Paul Atkins, seen as a supporter of cryptocurrencies, as his nominee for chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to CoinDesk, the cryptocurrency rose dramatically from less than $70,000 on election day, but fell towards $99,000 by Thursday.
Bitcoin's meteoric rise is nothing new, and has similarly taken away the stocks of companies caught up in the crypto world. MicroStrategy, which was raising funds solely to buy Bitcoin, fell 4.8% after rising as much as 9% in early trading. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global similarly erased a strong early rally and fell 3.1%.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, airline stocks led the way after recent big increases in earnings estimates.
American Airlines Group Inc. soared 16.8% after announcing better-than-expected revenue for the final three months of 2024 and likely a bigger profit than originally expected. The company also selected Citi as its exclusive credit card partner to award miles in its loyalty program. This should increase cash available from co-branded credit cards and other partners by about 10% annually.
Southwest Airlines rose 2% after saying demand from leisure travelers was stronger than expected. It also raised its revenue forecast for the holiday travel season.
The losers on Wall Street were Symposis, which fell 12.4%. The semiconductor industry supplier reported that its latest quarterly profit exceeded analysts' expectations, but also warned of “continued macro uncertainty” and said the current quarterly profit was lower than some analysts expected. It provided quarterly earnings forecasts.
American Eagle Outfitters fell another 14.3% after the company said it was preparing for “potential disruption” outside of peak sales periods. This is reminiscent of Foot Locker's warning earlier this week, raising further concerns about how resilient U.S. shoppers will remain.
Robust spending by U.S. consumers is a key reason why the U.S. economy was able to avoid a recession that previously seemed inevitable after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to curb inflation. It is one of the But shoppers are currently grappling with still-high prices and a slowing job market.
The highlight of the week on Wall Street will be Friday's U.S. government jobs report, which shows how many people employers hired and fired last month. The number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits rose last week, but remains at historically healthy levels, according to a report Thursday.
Expectations are rising that the Federal Reserve will cut its key interest rate again at its meeting in two weeks. Hoping for further support for the job market, the Federal Reserve began easing key interest rates from 20-year highs in September.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell slightly to 4.17% from 4.18% late Wednesday.
The S&P 500 fell 11.38 points to 6,075.11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell $248.33 to $44,765.71, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell $34.86 to $19,700.26.
In overseas stock markets, European indexes were largely calm after France's far-right and left-wing parliamentarians jointly voted in a no-confidence motion calling for Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his cabinet to resign. Paris' CAC40 index rose 0.4%.
In South Korea, the Kospi fell 0.9%, extending a 1.4% decline from the previous day. President Yoon Seok-yeol abruptly declared martial law on Tuesday night and was facing possible impeachment. He revoked martial law six hours later.
Crude oil prices fell after eight members of OPEC+, a coalition of oil exporting countries, decided not to increase production.
AP Business writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
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