Stocks fell lower Thursday, erasing gains from earlier this week. The Nasdaq led declines, falling over 2.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 slipped about 0.5% and 1.4% lower, respectively.
Here's how the market settled Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Ford tops $100 billion valuation first time ever:
Ford's
The company's shares rose as much as 5.7% to $25.87, a more than 20-year high which propelled Ford to a valuation of about $102 billion. However, Ford lost some momentum in later trade, closing at $25.02, dropping its market value to $99.99 billion.
The stock's gains were driven by Ford's plans to increase production of electric vehicles, including its highly anticipated electric version of its F-150 pick-up truck due this spring.
Producer prices jump higher in December:
Wholesale prices in the U.S. rose higher in December, further demonstrating the widespread inflationary pressures impacting both producers and consumers.
The Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 9.7% year-over-year last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report published Thursday, marking the data's biggest increase since it was first recorded in 2010. December's increase also followed November's 9.6% annual jump.
On a month-to-month basis, December's PPI slowed slightly, rising by 0.2% compared to November's upwardly revised increase of 1.0%.
Core PPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increase 8.3% in December year-over-year, accelerating from November's 7.9% rise.
Jobless claims unexpectedly rise, but remain within pandemic-era lows:
Initial jobless claims unexpectedly increased last week, but still remained within pandemic-era lows as the labor market continues to recover despite the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant.
First-time unemployment claims totaled 230,000 for the week ended Jan. 8, according to the Labor Department's fresh report published Thursday, above both consensus economists expectations for 200,000 and the prior week's unrevised level of 207,000.
Despite the rise in new jobless claims, continuing unemployment claims fell to a multi-decade low for the week ended Jan. 2, totaling 1.559 million. That level was before the 1.733 million expected and the revised total of 1.753 million from the previous week.
Here's how market benchmarks started trading soon after open:
S&P 500 Index: +0.27% or +12.85 points to 4,739.20
Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.44% or +159.84 points to 36,450.16
Nasdaq Composite Index: +0.33% or +50.40 points to 15,238.06
