Here are the top news, trends, and analysis investors need to start their trading day:
1. Dow to lose 500 points on Covid concerns
Traders work on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Dow futures fell nearly 500 points, or more than 1.3%, in a broad drop ahead of the market on Thursday as Japan declared a state of emergency for the upcoming Tokyo Summer Olympics and countries with a rebound in Covid cases due to variants have to fight. Futures linked to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also fell about 1.3% each.
The Thursday sale came the day after the rally resumed on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing at record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.3% off Friday’s record high.
2. The yield on 10-year government bonds is falling due to worries about global economic growth
Investors switched to the perceived safety of bonds on Thursday, pushing 10-year government bond yields below 1.26% to their lowest level since late February. Bond yields move inversely with prices.
- Despite the recovering economy and sharper inflation, the 10-year return continues to decline.
- It started at 1.58% in July. In March it reached a 14-month high of 1.78%.
- It started at less than 1% in 2021.
In another look at the rebound in the labor market, the government said Thursday morning that initial jobless claims totaled 373,000 for last week, worse than expected. That is slightly more than the revised upward lows of the pandemic era in the previous week. The stock of current receivables fell to 3.34 million, 145,000 less than in the previous week.
3. Tokyo falls into a state of emergency before the Olympics
The Tokyo 2020 logo will be displayed near Odaiba Seaside Park in Tokyo on July 7, 2021 as reports suggest that the Japanese government is planning to impose a state of emergency virus during the Tokyo Olympics.
Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images
Just two weeks before the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan’s Prime Minister declared a state of emergency for the capital on Thursday due to rising Covid infections. The order will come into force next Monday and until August 22nd. That means the Olympics, which start on July 23rd and run through August 8th, will take place entirely under emergency measures. While fans from abroad were banned months ago, Olympic officials recently set the competition limits for local spectators at 50%. However, the state of emergency could force another change in fan policy.
4. Global coronavirus deaths top 4 million as Delta variant spreads
Two women walk next to graves of people who died due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Parque Taruma cemetery in Manaus, Brazil, on May 20, 2021.
Bruno Kelly | Reuters
The global death toll from Covid topped 4 million late Wednesday when infections exceeded 185 million worldwide, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. In recent months, many countries have been struggling with an increase in Covid infections due to the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, which first appeared in India. The Delta tribe now accounts for more than half of the new Covid cases in the US and are traveling around the globe.
5. States bring new antitrust lawsuit against Google via the App Store
The Google Play logo is displayed on a screen.
Alexander Pohl | NurPhoto | Getty Images
The attorneys general are taking another antitrust lawsuit against Google. This time around, the Alphabet unit allegedly abused its power over app developers through its Play Store on Android. The case is the fourth antitrust lawsuit filed against the company by US government enforcers last year. By focusing on the Play Store, the latest lawsuit touches an aspect of Google’s business that is most similar to Apple’s App Store. The App Store has encountered legal challenges and has raised questions from legislators as to whether it is wrongly charging developers for payments made through their apps by customers and whether it prefers its own apps over those of its competitors.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow all market activity like a pro on CNBC Pro. Get the latest on the pandemic with coronavirus coverage from CNBC.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics owns the U.S. broadcast rights to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.
