U.S. stock markets closed mixed on Thursday as weaker-than-expected June jobs data cooled fears of further Federal Reserve rate hikes, sending the Dow Jones to a fresh record.
The S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) ended the session flat, while the Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: QQQ) slipped 1.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) added 1.1% to close at an all-time high.
The Russell 2000, which tracks small-cap equities, also declined, losing 0.6% as investors continued rotating away from growth and technology-linked names.
Semiconductor stocks bore the brunt of Thursday’s selling pressure, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF losing 4.5% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index tumbling 5.4%.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls in June increased by a seasonally adjusted 57,000, falling well short of the 115,000 analyst estimate cited by Dow Jones data and reported by MarketWatch.
The BLS also revised its earlier payroll figures downward, trimming May’s estimate by 43,000 and April’s by 31,000, suggesting the labor market had been growing more slowly than previously understood.
The unemployment rate came in at 4.2%, slightly below the expected 4.3%, offering a modest silver lining within an otherwise disappointing employment report.
Rate hike odds dropped sharply in response to the data, falling to 17.6% on Thursday from 28.9% the prior day and 32.1% a week earlier, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Bret Kenwell at eToro told Bloomberg, “Just when investors thought they had the labor market figured out, the June jobs report threw them a curveball,” adding, “A disappointing jobs report isn’t exactly good news, but it may give risk-on assets a silver lining: Less pressure on the Fed to take a hawkish stance.”
Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for SPY, QQQ, and DIA was broadly bullish, with normal to high message volumes across all three benchmark-tracking instruments.
Among the stocks drawing attention, CoreWeave slid to its worst single-day loss in more than four months after reports emerged that Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is developing plans for its own cloud computing business.
Lucid Group drew investor focus after the EV maker announced a major leadership overhaul following weaker-than-expected second-quarter vehicle deliveries.
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) was also in the spotlight after the chipmaker awarded a significant stock payout to its chief executive, Lisa Su, following a strong rally in the first half of the year.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported better-than-expected second-quarter deliveries, supported by strong performance across Europe and China, while Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) deployed enough low-Earth orbit satellites to prepare for the commercial launch of its space-based internet service later this year.
Separately, Anthropic PBC is in talks with Samsung Electronics to become a manufacturing partner for a custom artificial intelligence chip, a development that underscores the continued race among AI companies to secure dedicated semiconductor capacity.
