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U.S. Stocks Open Lower as Oil Prices, Jobless Claims in Focus -Breaking

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© Reuters

Liz Moyer and Peter Nurse

Investing.com — U.S. stocks closed lower Thursday due to a steep drop in crude oil prices. Investors are awaiting key inflation data and information on employment on the final trading day of each month or quarter.

The index fell by 107 points (or 0.3%) at 9:45AM ET. Meanwhile, the declined 0.3% while the was up 0.5%.

Wednesday’s decline in Wall Street indices was due to a lack of hope for a breakthrough in Ukraine/Russian peace negotiations. Both the broad-based and blue-chip ending their four-day winning streaks.

March has been a positive month for the major averages, with the Dow on course to post gains of nearly 5%, the S&P 500 over 6% and the well over 8%. 

However, as far as the year to date is concerned, the Dow and S&P 500 are both down around 3% and the Nasdaq is off more than 7%.

Oil prices slumped Thursday following reports that the U.S. is considering a massive release of crude from in order to tackle the sharp rise in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Biden administration could make the announcement later Thursday, the reports said, with the total release from the country’s strategic petroleum reserve potentially as much as 180 million barrels over the course of several months.

The news is now overshadowing a scheduled meeting of the and their allies (a group called OPEC+), which is set for later in session. It expects to keep to the existing agreement of increasing oil production by approximately 400,000 barrels per hour through May.

Futures were trading 3.7% less at $103.88 per barrel by 9:46 ET while contract prices fell 3.1% to $108. 

Thursday also sees the release of weekly following on from Wednesday’s strong , and ahead of Friday’s on employment for March. This week’s initial claims were filed by 202,000 more people than expected.

Walgreens, a pharmacy chain, will report its quarterly earnings later in session. CVS, meanwhile, will be in the spotlight following Wednesday’s $484 million settlement in relation to opioids. 

The price rose 0.4%, to $1,941/oz.

The original publication of this story took place at 7 AM ET. It was then updated.

 

 

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