By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Dow swung between gains and losses on Thursday, as hopes the labor market had turned corner were thrown into doubt following mixed economic data. But that did little to cool reopening optimism as cyclical stocks held firm.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.26%, or 67 points, the S&P 500 slipped 0.61%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.62%.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits continues to decline, but a deeper look into the data suggests that hopes the jobs market had bottomed may have been somewhat optimistic.
Initial jobless claims fell to 1.877 million for the week ended May 29, from 2.1 million the prior, but missed forecasts of 1.8 million, Continuing jobless claims, however, unexpectedly rose to 21.5 million from 20.8 million the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday,
Many have been expecting the job situation to "stabilize and snapback in June, but the sticky high level of initial claims, elevated continuing claims, and the rise in claims for the Pandemic Assistance Program program suggest that even June might be too early for the expected turnaround," Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) said in a note.
Sectors sensitive to the economic recovery such as financials and industrials, however, remained well supported, sidestepping the broader market decline.
The optimism over the progress on reopening the economy has been underscored in the bond market, which for weeks had been signaling that the surge in appetite for risk had been overdone.
The yield on the United States 10-Year rose above 0.80% to a more-than-two-month high, helping banks catch a bid. Citigroup (NYSE:C), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) continued to climb, with latter up more than 3%.
Sentiment on the aviation sector improved, meanwhile, after American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) said it plans to fly 55% of its domestic schedule in July, up from May when the airline flew just 20% of its capacity from a year ago.
But technology lagged the rally, with investors seemingly wary of frothy valuations on display following the sector's surge since the lows seen in March.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) traded below the flatline.