Wall Street was closed on Thursday in observance of a National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter. U.S. stock markets closed mixed on Wednesday as market participants remained concerned regarding the forward trajectory of both inflation and interest rates. The Dow and the S&P 500 ended in positive territory, while the Nasdaq Composite finished in negative zone.

How Did The Benchmarks Perform?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gained 0.3% or 106.84 points to close at 42,635.20 after a choppy session. At intraday low, the blue-chip index was down as much as 200 points. Notably, 18 components of the 30-stock index ended in positive territory while 12 in negative zone.

The major gainer of the index was UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH. The stock price of this global leader for medical and health insurance rose 2%. UnitedHealth currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here .

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished at 19,478.88, declining 0.1% due to weak performance by technology behemoths. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% to finish at 5,918.25. Eight out of 11 broad sectors of the broad-market index ended in positive territory and three in negative zone. The Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB) and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV) increased 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively.

The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 0.7% to 17.70. A total of 15.86 billion shares were traded on Wednesday, higher than the last 20-session average of 12.29 billion. Decliners outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.21-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.98-to-1 ratio favored declining issues.

Economic Data

The ADP private sector payrolls for December came in at 122,000 compared with 146,000 in November, also missing the consensus estimate of 136,000. December marked the lowest print since August 2024. Average wage rate grew 4.6% annually in December, reflecting the lowest level since July 2021.

The Department of Labor reported that initial claims decreased by 10,000 to 201,000 for the week ended Jan 4, lower than the consensus estimate of 215,000. Previous week’s data remained unrevised at 211,000. The latest weekly jobless claims were lowest since February 2024.

Continuing claims (those who have already received government aids and reported a week behind) increased 33,000 to 1.867 million for the week ended Dec 28. The previous week's level was revised downward by 10,000 to 1,844,000 from 1,834,000 reported earlier.

For the week ended Jan 3, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) decreased by 1.0 million barrels from the previous week.