US Markets Stocks were down on Thursday as investors are concerned that the Fed will continue to aggressively increase interest rates after data showed that the job market is strong. - Walgreens dropped 6.13% after posting losses last quarter, in large part because it paid $5.2B to settle an opioid lawsuit.
- Bed, Bath and Beyond fell by 29.88% after the retailer said it may file for bankruptcy because it has low cash reserves.
- Silvergate Capital, the self-claimed bank for crypto users, plunged 42.74% as users continued to withdraw funds at an abnormally large rate in Q4.
- The ADP report released on Thursday showed that private payrolls rose by 235,000 jobs in December, well above estimates.
- Currently, U.S. markets are on pace for their fifth consecutive losing week.
- The current 10 Year U.S. Treasury yield is set at 3.71910%
| Dow Jones | 32,930.08 | -1.02% | | S&P 500 | 3,808.10 | -1.16% | | Nasdaq | 10,305.24 | -1.47% | | Russell 2000 | 1,753.19 | -1.09% | *Stock Market data as of the last closing bell. Data received directly from the reference indexes through ICE Data Services. Do you not understand any of these figures? Check out our explainer.
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Canadian Markets Economists predict that data released by Statistics Canada later today will show that the country's labor market is slowing down. - Canada added 108,000 jobs in October and 10,000 in November, both of which were above expectations.
- Wages increased 5.6% in November year over year, which marked six straight months of wage growth of over 5%; this trend is expected to continue.
- Investors forecast that 5,000 jobs were added to the economy in December but that employment rose by one basis point to 5.2%.
*Canadian stock prices are as of the last close. Data received directly from the references indexes through ICE Data Services
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European Markets European stocks suffered their first loss of 2023 as investors reacted to strong jobs data in the U.S. - The Stoxx 600 lost 0.15% on the day after hitting a three-week intraday high earlier in the trading session.
- Retail stocks were the best performing, gaining 2.3% on the day, while insurance stocks fell by 1.7%.
- Data from Calastone shows that equity funds in the U.K. saw record outflows in 2022, with net outflows every month for a total of $9.95B.
| Euro STOXX 50 | 3,960.23 | -0.35% | | UK (FTSE 100) | 7,634.97 | 0.66% | | Germany (DAX) | 14,442.52 | -0.33% | | France (CAC 40) | 6,762.53 | -0.21% | *European stock prices are as of 7 am ET. Data received directly from the reference indexes through ICE Data Services.
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Asian Markets Stocks rose in Asia on Thursday after positive national news in many markets. - In Singapore, data showed retail sales increased by 6.2% year over year in November 2022.
- China's Purchasing Managers' Index showed a contraction in factory activity in December but an improvement from a month earlier.
- Stocks in India were in negative territory again, failing to capitalize on the positive momentum in the region.
| S&P Asia 50 | 4,682.31 | 4.27% | | Japan (Nikkei 225) | 25,820.80 | 0.40% | | South Korea (KOSPI) | 2,264.65 | 0.38% | | China (Hang Seng) | 21,052.17 | 1.25% | | India (SENSEX) | 60,353.27 | -0.50% | *Asian stock prices are as of 7 am ET. Data received directly from the reference indexes through ICE Data Services.
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Commodities Oil prices rose on Thursday after their worst two-day start to a year since 1971. - U.S. gasoline inventories were down by 346,000 barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said.
- Diesel and heating oil stockpiles decreased by 1.4 million barrels last week, significantly more than the 396,000 drop expected by analysts.
- Crude oil inventories were up more than 1.7 million barrels last week.
- Brent crude gained 1.7% on the day and U.S. West Texas Intermediate was up 1.8%.
| Oil (NYSEARCA:OIL) | 27.97 | 0.32% | | Gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) | 170.52 | -1.25% | | Silver (NYSEARCA:SLV) | 21.39 | -2.28% | | Corn (NYSEARCA:CORN) | 25.93 | -0.69% | | Lumber (NASDAQ:WOOD) | 73.41 | -0.81% | *Commodity prices are as of 7am ET. Data from MarketWatch. To understand why investors track the prices of these commodities, click here.
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Currency Exchange Rates The U.S. Dollar rose on Thursday as data showed that private employers added 235,000 jobs in December, which could lead to more aggressive interest rate hikes that would prop up the USD. - New unemployment claims were at a three-month low last week, while layoffs were down 43% from November to December.
- Investors now estimate a 48% chance of a 50-basis point interest rate hike whereas they estimated a 31% chance on Wednesday, before the strong job figures were released.
- The U.S. Dollar Index was up 0.37% on the day.
| UK(GBP) | £0.84 | 0.52% | | Europe (EURO) | €0.95 | 0.23% | | Canada (Canadian Dollar) | $1.36 | -0.77% | | Japan (Yen) | ¥133.43 | 1.66% | *Exchange rates as of 7 am ET. Data from Morningstar Financial Research. To understand why we track these currencies and the differences between them, click here.
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Cryptocurrency Crypto prices were stable on Thursday despite the volatility seen in recent weeks. - Aurelian Michel, who developed Mutant Ape Planet, has been arrested and charged with fraud after allegedly orchestrating a $2.9M rug-pull.
- Genesis said it plans to lay off over 30% of its staff to reduce costs.
- Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius, has been sued by New York State for allegedly defrauding investors with misleading comments about the health of the company.
| Bitcoin | $16,836.90 | 1.00% | | Ethereum | $1,250.56 | -0.46% | | Litecoin | $74.43 | -1.30% | | Bitcoin Cash | $101.26 | 1.67% | *Exchange rates as of 7 am ET. Data from Morningstar Financial Research. To understand why we track these currencies and the differences between them, click here.
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 |  | Liam Gill is a founder, lawyer and investor.
He previously founded Fumarii Technologies, which became a top 20 ranked cloud computing service (Yahoo Finance! 2019) valued at over $30M. He holds an LLB Laws (UK), MSc Management and Master of Laws and currently practices law in Vancouver, Canada.
|   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
