Recap: Stocks Lower After Retailers Post Sales Declines

Despite opening higher after a weekly labor report beat expectations, markets closed in the red for a second consecutive day as retailers post lower results than anticipated.

The Nasdaq was leading the decline with a 1.00% fall to 1,973, followed by a 0.56% downturn in the S&P 500 to 997,  and the Dow moved 0.27% lower to 9,256.

An hour before markets opened, sentiment had turned optimistic after the weekly jobless claims report offered the first unambiguous glimpse of a slowdown in the decline of the labor market. Initial claims fell 38k in the week ending August 1 to 550,000.

“Now that the unemployment claims data are clear of the distortions of the summer auto shutdowns, it is encouraging to see initial claims at the 550,000 level at the end of July,” said analysts from RDQ Economics. 

The number of initial claims reached as low as 524k in the week ending July 11, but that data was unreliable, polluted as it was by seasonal issues. This week’s data is clean â€