The broader market fell in later trade on Thursday following reports that President Joe Biden is set to propose a much higher capital gains tax next week as part of the administration's effort to boost the overall economy. This decline took place despite better-than-expected U.S. economic data and corporate earnings reports on the day.
Bloomberg News reported Thursday afternoon the Biden will propose a capital gains tax to 39.6% from 20% for Americans earning $1 million or more, citing people familiar with the matter.
Earlier, new weekly unemployment claims declined to a new pandemic-era low for the week ended April 17, according to the Labor Department's latest report. Weekly jobless claims totaled a less-than-expected 547,000 last week, down from the upwardly revised 586,000 reported the week previous. Continuing jobs claims also fell, but came in slightly above consensus expectations at 3.674 million for the week ended April 3.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -0.92% or -38.44 points to 4,134.98
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.95% or -322.66 points to 33,814.65
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -0.94% or -131.81 points to 13,818.41
For Stocks, growth names like Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) came under pressure on fears of higher capital gains taxes.
For Sector Performance, all sectors ended the day lower, with Financials (NYSE: XLF), Consumer Discretionary (NYSE: XLY), Information Technology (NYSE: XLK), Energy (NYSE: XLE) and Materials (NYSE: XLB) leading losses.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) rose against major currencies on Thursday as positive U.S. economic news uplifted the green back. The dollar index was up 0.2% at 91.303 in late afternoon trade. Conversely, Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices slipped lower on the positive U.S. jobs report, with spot gold decline 0.58% to $1,783.03 per ounce in afternoon trade, while U.S. gold futures settled 0.54% lower at $1,782.70 per ounce. Crude oil futures ended Thursday little changes as coronavirus pandemic demand concerns and Libya lowering its crude production evened forecasts. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) settled 0.12% higher at $65.40 per barrel, while domestic index West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) was up 0.13% at $61.43 each.
For Friday, traders will focus on new flash reading for Markit manufacturing and services PMI for April, as well as corporate quarter earnings from companies like Honeywell International (NYSE: HON) and Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB).