US Stock Market Overview – Stocks Trade Mixed, Nasdaq Rallies

US stocks were mixed on Thursday with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 rallying and the Dow declining. The Dow was capped by declines in Boeing. The airplane maker reported on Thursday that the company found additional issues with the 737 max. Traders now await the Trump-XI meeting which is scheduled for the weekend on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Osaka Japan. US jobless claims moved up more than expected allowing US yields to slip. Most sectors were higher, led by Financials and Healthcare, Energy shares bucked the trend.

President Xi has Terms required for a Deal

President Xi Jinping of China plans to present President Trump with a set of terms he wants the US to meet before Beijing is ready to settle their trade dispute, raising questions of whether the two leaders will agree to relaunch talks. Among the preconditions for a trade agreement, Chinese officials with knowledge of the plan said, Beijing is insisting the US remove its ban on the sale of US technology to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. Beijing also wants the US to lift all punitive tariffs.

The US head trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, and his Chinese counterpart, Liu He, talked by telephone this week on ways to get the talks back on track and expect to meet in person in advance of the presidents’ Saturday lunch meeting after a Group of 20 summits in Osaka.

Jobless Claims Disappoint

US jobless claims increased 10,000 to 227,000 for the week ended June 22, according to the Labor Department. Data for the prior week was revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported. Expectations were for close to rise 3,000 to 220,000. Claims could rise further in the coming weeks as auto manufacturers temporarily shut down assembly plants for summer retooling. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 2,250 to 221,250 last week.

The continuing claims data covered the week of the household survey, from which June’s unemployment rate will be calculated. The four-week average of claims rose 13,000 between the May and June survey weeks, suggesting little change in the unemployment rate, which is hovering near a 50-year low of 3.6%.