The New York stock market opened higher at the beginning of the session but is showing a chaotic pattern as it declines. The worsening U.S. employment indicators were released simultaneously with reports of a U.S.-China currency conversation, leading to the interpretation that the market sentiment is not leaning toward selling or buying.
According to Bloomberg on the 5th, as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern Time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average started at 42,291.07, down 136.67 points (-0.32%) from the previous session. At the same time, the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 index was at 5,956.25, a decrease of 14.56 points (-0.24%), while the Nasdaq index dropped to 19,428.96 points, down 31.50 points (-0.16%) from the last session.
Earlier, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that new claims for unemployment benefits rose to 247,000 last week, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week. This marked the highest number of claims since the first week of October last year. Amid growing concerns that the recent U.S. government’s tariff policy will freeze the job market, the negative indicators were reported. Employment market indicators are also used as a gauge for trends in the real economy in the U.S.
At a similar time, China’s state media Xinhua reported that “on the evening of the 5th, President Xi Jinping spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump at his request.” This occurred amid ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China, marking the first phone conversation between President Xi and Trump since the latter took office. However, the details of their conversation were not disclosed.
The simultaneous release of adverse and favorable news affecting investor sentiment led to chaos at the beginning of the session. In the case of the S&P 500 index, it opened higher due to reports of a phone conversation but quickly reversed to decline again. Additionally, there are concerns that upcoming U.S. economic indicators could have a further negative impact on the market. Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, noted, “The latest unemployment claims data from the Department of Labor is evidence that employment outlook is worsening,” adding that “the actual factor that will affect the market is the employment report to be released tomorrow.”