Wall Street edges lower; Bitcoin jumps to record high
Stocks edged lower on Wall Street in afternoon trading on Thursday (US time) as investors remain cautiously optimistic about prospects for a new round of government aid as the economic recovery seemingly stalls.
Wall Street continued to digest solid corporate earnings and updates on a decline of new virus cases. The latest government report on jobless claims, though, reaffirmed that employment remains a weak spot in the economy as vaccine distribution ramps up in the hopes of eventually ending the pandemic and its impact.
In early afternoon trade, the S&P 500 is 0.3 per cent lower after making small gains earlier, marking another wobbly day of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 0.4 per cent, while the Nasdaq has shed 0.2 per cent.
It sets up the Australian sharemarket to dip, with futures at 5.09am AEDT pointing to a fall of 6 points, or 0.1 per cent, at the open.
Bitcoin jumped to a record high after Mastercard and Bank of New York Mellon moved to make it easier for customers to use cryptocurrencies.
The largest digital asset rose as much as 7.4 per cent to $US48,364 ($62,381), surpassing the all-time high reached Monday after Tesla announced it would hold $US1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency on its balance sheet.
Technology stocks were the only companies making gains on Wall Street after two relatively weak days. Most other sectors of the market were edging lower. The yield on 10-year Treasury note held at 1.15 per cent after being as high as 1.2 per cent earlier this week.
President Joe Biden held his first conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Although there wasn’t any indication of a major change in US trade policy, businesses are hoping for a less combative approach to trade policy between the world’s two biggest economies than during the Trump administration. Technology companies were among some of the hardest hit companies by tough trade policies during the previous administration.
Many markets in Asia were closed for the Lunar New Year and other holidays. Markets in Europe were mostly higher.
Companies continued reporting mostly solid earnings, adding to a surprisingly good earnings season. Kraft Heinz jumped 5.1 per cent and Zillow Group rose 14.4 per cent after beating Wall Street’s fourth-quarter profit forecasts.
The pandemic and business shutdowns are still hurting many companies and crimping their financial results. Molson Coors fell 11.2 per cent after its profits fell short of expectations because business shutdowns in Europe hurt sales.
Wall Street is still looking for more government aid to help bolster the struggling economy as vaccine distribution progresses and the number of new virus cases continues falling. Democrats in Congress are working on a potential $US1.9 trillion relief package that would include direct payments to people and more jobless aid as unemployment remains stubbornly high.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell slightly last week to 793,000. The job market had shown tentative improvement last summer but slowed through the fall and in the past two months. Nearly 10 million jobs still remain lost to the pandemic.
AP, Bloomberg
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