The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) and the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) opened Thursday’s trading session in positive territory, although both ETFs gave up a majority of their gains by the close.
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The market received a jolt after continuing jobless claims for the week ended July 26 increased by 38,000 to 1.974 million, above the expectation of 1.95 million. Continuing jobless claims are now at their highest level since November 2021 as companies take a cautious approach to hiring. Furthermore, new applications for unemployment benefits for the week ended August 2 totaled 226,000, above the estimate of 221,000. That comes after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a “larger than normal” downward revision of 285,000 jobs to May and June’s nonfarm payrolls.
Meanwhile, President Trump targeted Intel (INTC) CEO Lip-Bu Tan in a Truth Social post, saying, “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately.” Tan invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Chinese chip and manufacturing companies between 2012 and 2024 and became Intel’s CEO in March of this year. Intel has declined by nearly 60% during the past five years as its competitors, like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Qualcomm (QCOM), have outpaced the American chipmaker. INTC stock closed with a 3.14% loss.
A top Putin adviser seemingly confirmed a Trump-Putin meeting, although the White House later pushed back on the statement. “At the suggestion of the American side, an agreement in principle was made to hold a bilateral meeting at the highest level in the coming days,” said Russian foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov. A White House official later clarified that Putin must also meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in order to meet with Trump. In addition, the official said that a secure meeting location has not yet been determined.
Finally, former Fed Governor Christopher Waller has emerged as the frontrunner to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell following a Bloomberg report that said Trump’s advisers are impressed with Waller’s acumen. Waller now has a 21% chance of being selected as Trump’s pick for Fed Chair before December 31, outpacing National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett at 17% and Fed Governor Kevin Warsh at 12%. Powell’s tenure is set to come to an end in May 2026.
The S&P 500 (SPX) closed with a 0.08% loss while the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) secured a 0.32% gain.
