Dow Jones Up, Others Down after Unemployment Claims

The Unemployment claims for the US released this week, and the stock market indices dipped, except for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The index ticked up 0.51%, although tech-heavy indexes like S&P 500 fell after the report. The S&P 500 dropped 0.39%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.30%.

Unemployment claims were higher than last week, moving up by 1,000 to 212,000. That is not as high as was expected, which is good news for the economy and gives traders some hope that inflation might start to look better soon.

One of the most notable losses for the week so far has been from Tesla, which recorded a drop of 3.5% on Thursday. The electric automaker is down another 0.29% today and continues its slide after laying off more than 10% of its workers and reporting lower than expected revenue.

One of this week’s most important earnings reports was from Netflix, which showed that the company had gained more subscribers over the last quarter. However, the overall report was negative thanks to a poor forecast for the upcoming quarter. Netflix stock dropped 8.53% as a result.

Unemployment and Inflation Impact the Stock Market

The stock market is heavily influenced by economic and inflation indicators. These establish measures of risk, and we can see how powerful the current economic environment has affected stock trading recently.

Over the past few months, major stocks have suffered a post quarterly drop because their earnings were not quite up to expectations or because their forecast for the next quarter was not as high as anticipated. In the high inflation economy, that just will not cut it, and traders have been showing their disapproval for underperforming stocks recently.

It is not enough for companies like Apple and Netflix to show that they are making a profit. They also have to show that they can bring in more sales for the coming quarter and that they can grow from one quarter to the next. Investors will be particularly harsh on them now as inflation is still rising and unemployment claims are only mildly positive.