Dow Jones falls as labor market recovery slows

With the next fiscal stimulus package now expected only after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on Jan 20, momentum in the labour market is expected to remain slow.

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits totalled a seasonally adjusted 778,000 for the week ended November 21, compared with 748,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected initial jobless claims to come in at 733,000.

With the next fiscal stimulus package now expected only after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20, momentum in the labor market is expected to remain slow.

He lauded the efforts with the vaccine, and said that this was an awesome medical breakthrough. It was also optimistic about the incoming Biden government.

"The stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is the highest in history, we've never broken 30,000 and that's despite everything that's taken place with the pandemic". The S&P 500 was down 5.76 points, or 0.16 percent, to 3,629.65.

Seven of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors dipped, with energy closing down 2.42 percent, leading the laggards.

Major U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Group, among the most economically-sensitive, were down 1.9% and 1.5%, respectively.

Still, the vaccine developments and removal of uncertainties surrounding the US presidential election have driven Wall Street indexes to record closing highs, and put the S&P 500 on course for its best November ever. The index has surged 66 percent since the coronavirus-led crash in March and is up about 12.5 percent so far this year.

The Dow rose more than 400 points, or 1.4 per cent, to trade just over 30,000.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1.27-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.03-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 14 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 106 new highs and five new lows.