US stocks hold weaker amid lingering US-China trade tensions
|Major US equity indices witnessed yet another weaker opening on Thursday, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) on track to extend its losing streak for the eight consecutive sessions.
A full-blown trade war is now getting closer to reality, which continued weighing on investors' sentiment and dampened demand for perceived riskier assets - like equities. Market participants now seemed worried that trade tensions between the world's two largest economies could potentially turn out to be a headwind for the global economy.
Adding to this, a drop in oil prices, amid firming expectations that OPEC might be nearing a deal to increase production, exerted downward pressure on energy stocks and further collaborated to the weaker tone on Thursday.
Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index continues to outperform the broader markets and once again managed to score a fresh all-time high during the opening hour of trade on Thursday, albeit struggled to sustain early gains and has now drifted into negative territory.
On the economic data front, the initial weekly jobless claims declined by 3,000 to 218K during the week ended June 16 and remained near multi-decade lows. The positive reading, to a larger extent, was negated by a larger than expected drop in the Philly Fed manufacturing index, coming to at 19.9 for June as compared to 34.4 in May.
At the time of writing this report, DJIA lost over 85-point to 24,575, while the broader S&P 500 Index was down nearly 4-points to 2.764 and Nasdaq slipped over 4-points to 7,777.
Information on these pages contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Markets and instruments profiled on this page are for informational purposes only and should not in any way come across as a recommendation to buy or sell in these assets. You should do your own thorough research before making any investment decisions. FXStreet does not in any way guarantee that this information is free from mistakes, errors, or material misstatements. It also does not guarantee that this information is of a timely nature. Investing in Open Markets involves a great deal of risk, including the loss of all or a portion of your investment, as well as emotional distress. All risks, losses and costs associated with investing, including total loss of principal, are your responsibility. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of FXStreet nor its advertisers.