It seems that investors may be unable to shake their concerns over the economy this week because even in light of some positive news today, U.S. markets still ended the day with losses.
The Labor Department announced today that unemployment claims had fallen slightly. And even though the drop was small, it beat analyst’s expectations which means that the labor market might be improving more than was previously thought. Of course, the unemployment rate is still high but this isn’t a problem with a quick fix, so any drop in unemployment numbers could be considered a minor success.
In other good news, Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) announced today that they had an 85% jump in quarterly profits during quarter two. Apparently, as oil prices went up, so did profits—which begs the question, why did oil prices need to go up?
Either way, this good news did not raise the Dow Jones Industrial Average which fell 30.80 points to close at 10,467.08. The Nasdaq struggled all day against losing points and finally closed at 2,251.69 a loss of 12.87 points. Finally, the S&P 500 lost 4.60 points to close at 1,101.53.
European markets were down and Asian markets were mixed.
