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Stocks climb ahead of Fed minutes – Jobless claims surpass expectations – Hiring freezes instead of layoffs stoke recession fears – Bezos issues financial warning to Americans to “hold on to your money”
The main indexes on Wall Street rose early on Wednesday as investors awaited the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting, hopeful of a lower notch upward in interest rates. Wednesday’s actions saw growth stocks gaining a modest amount, while a mixed bag of economic data led to a drop in Treasury yields, with the 10-year Treasury yield taking lower to 3.7%, Yahoo Finance reported.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 0.3%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite traded up 0.7% in morning action, Investor’s Business Daily reported.
Apple, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon saw gains between 0.4% and 0.7%. Tesla traded up 5%, and Deere stock jumped 3%.
Autodesk shares plunged 9%, while Nordstrom shares tumbled 9.5%.
First-time weekly claims for unemployment benefits rose by 17,000 over the previous week, jumping to 240,000 for the week ended November 19, according to data released by the Department of Labor on Wednesday, CNN reported. The prior week jobless claims were at 222,000, and the latest numbers surpassed economists’ expectations of 225,000 claims.
According to Labor Department data, the latest numbers are the highest weekly total since August 13.
Continuing claims – people who have filed for jobless aid for at least two weeks in a row – rose to 1.55 million for the week ending November 12, representing an 8-month high.
In a darkening economic outlook, most companies are holding off on layoffs. However, a growing number of firms are choosing not to fill open positions when employees leave, essentially engaging in a hiring freeze, USA Today reported. Companies are slowing down replacing people so that they don’t have to do layoffs, said a vice president of a leading staffing firm, adding that companies are planning for uncertainty.
Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos is warning Americans of what he views as an uncertain economic future, Yahoo Finance reported. During an interview with CNN, Bezos warned Americans: “Hold onto your money.”
“[The economy] does not look good right now.” Bezos said. “Things are slowing down. You’re seeing layoffs in many, many sectors of the economy.”
“If you’re an individual considering purchasing a big-screen TV, you might want to wait, hold onto your money, and see what transpires,” Bezos added. “The same is true with a new automobile, refrigerator, or whatever else. Just remove some risk from the equation.”
