Asia Morning US stocks lack upward momentum Airline stocks Fly

On Thursday, U.S. stocks lacked upward momentum as seen in prior sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 12 points to 26281, while the S&P 500 slipped 10 points (-0.3%) to 3112. The Nasdaq 100 marked a record intraday high of 9742 before closing at 9629 (down 75 points or -0.8%).

Source: GAIN Capital, TradingView

Banks (+3.38%), Insurance (+2.25%) and Automobiles & Components (+2.08%) sectors performed the best, while Utilities (-1.95%), Household & Personal Products (-1.85%) and Real Estate (-1.81%) sectors lagged behind.

Airline stocks such as American Airlines (AAL +41.10%), United Airlines (UAL +16.20%) and Delta Airlines (DAL +13.73%) were top gainers.

On the technical side, about 51.4% (46.4% in the prior session) of stocks in the S&P 500 Index were trading above their 200-day moving average, and 94.9% (95.8% in the prior session) were above their 20-day moving average.

U.S. official data showed that the latest Initial Jobless Claims declined to 1.877 million (1.843 million expected). However, Continuing Claims increased to 21.487 million (20.050 million expected).

U.S. Trade Deficit widened to 49.4 billion dollars in April (as expected).

Later today, the closely-watched U.S. official jobs report is expected to show a reduction of 7.500 million nonfarm payrolls in May with the jobless rated jumping to 19.4%.

European stocks were broadly lower, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipping 0.7%. Germany's DAX lost 0.5%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 fell 0.6% and France's CAC was down 0.2%.

U.S. Treasury prices remained under pressure, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield advanced to 0.826% from 0.761% Wednesday.

Spot gold price rebounded $14.00 (+0.9%) to $1,713, halting a two-day decline.

U.S. WTI crude oil futures (July) eased 0.3% to $37.18 a barrel.

On the forex front, the U.S. dollar sank further against its major peers ahead of the closely watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls due later today. The ICE Dollar Index dropped 0.6% on day to 96.76.

EUR/USD jumped 1.0% to 1.1343, rising for an eighth straight session. The European Central Bank announced that its pandemic emergency purchase programme will be increased by 600 billion euros to 1,350 billion euros, and the programme's duration will be extended until June 2021 or until it believes the coronavirus crisis is over. ECB expects the eurozone's economy to contract by 8.7% this year, before rebounding by 5.2% in 2021. Meanwhile, the central bank kept its key interest rates unchanged as expected.

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