Tight Labor Market Signs Cause Indexes to Drop

• US stocks closed lower Thursday, snapping a winning streak of three consecutive gains. 
• Weekly jobless claims rose less often than expected, which suggests that the labor market is still tight.
• Charles Schwab’s Liz Ann Sonders stated that “Strong economic data, particularly strong labor market data, keeps Fed’s foot on its economic brake.”

US stocks closed lower Thursday as a result of a three-day winning streak. This was despite indications that the labor market is still too tight for the Federal Reserve’s taste.

The Labor Department reported that unemployment filings rose to 216,000 last Wednesday, which is below analyst predictions of 222,000. 

“Strong economic and labor market data keeps the Fed on the economic brake,” Liz Ann Sonders (chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab), said. told Reuters.  “The Fed doesn’t just want or require lower inflation. They believe that in order to bring down inflation and keep it down sustainable, you need to see more labor market weakness. This would be accompanied by more weakness in economy.

The prospect of Fed hawkishness has been hard for markets to swallow, despite occasional bouts of optimism like the market rally this week. 

Here’s the status of the US indexes at 4:30 p.m. ET closes Thursday

Here’s what happened today:

• UBS said the stock marketIt is not yet possible to accurately price in the possibility of a recession next years. 
• Billionaire David TepperHe said that he will be shorting the market through 2023, despite the Federal Reserve’s continued hawkishness. 
• Guggenheim Partners chief investor officer and founding managing partnership Scott MinerdOn Wednesday, he died at 63. 

In commodities, bonds, crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crudeOil fell 0.4% to $77.92 a barrel Brent crudeOil’s international benchmark, dipped 0.95% to $81.43
• GoldThe price per ounce fell by 1.41%, to $1,788.67
• The 10-year Treasury yield declined by 1.1 basis point to 3.673%. 
• Bitcoin rose 0.2% to $16,666.53