“Stocks traded mixed near session lows Thursday as the earlier bounce from a better-than-expected jobless claims report fizzled,” JeeYeon Park reports for CNBC. “Major averages are on pace for their biggest weekly drop in more than four months. ‘There’s more profit taking going on…this might be the continuation of the recent pullback,” said Alan Valdes, director of floor operations at DME Securities. ‘Volume’s been light and there’s still the usual uncertainty regarding the election, ‘fiscal cliff’ and Europe.'”
“On the economic front, weekly jobless claims tumbled 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000, hitting the lowest level since February 2008, according to the Labor Department. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims edging up to 370,0000 last week. The four-week moving average for new claims fell 11,500 to 364,000,” Park reports. “However, the report may have been distorted by one state not posting its claims number for the week as expected. A Labor Department spokesman said the state accounted for much of the decline, but did not name the state. ‘I was told the state not revealed subtracted 30,000 from the weekly initial jobless claims figure,’ wrote Peter Boockvar, managing director at Miller Tabak. ‘This would take the ‘adjusted’ number to 369,000, about in line with the original expectations of 370,000. The mix up was due to a ‘timing issue’ in delivering data to the Labor Department.'”
Park reports, “Apple [AAPL $630.80, -10.11 (-1.58%)] edged lower after a federal appeals court reversed an injunction that barred rival Samsung from selling its Galaxy Nexus smartphone… On the economic front, U.S. trade deficit increased to $44.2 billion in August, mostly in line with analyst expectations, according to the Commerce Department. Overall exports dropped amid European concerns, while imports slipped slightly.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]