NEW YORK — Wall Street remains listless on Thursday, as the countdown ticks toward Friday’s highly anticipated jobs report.
The S&P 500 was 0.2% lower in morning trading. After sprinting through May and rallying within a couple good days’ worth of gains of its all-time high, the index at the center of many 401(k) accounts has lost momentum as financial markets wait for the next big trigger to move, up or down.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 117 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.
Trading activity in options markets suggests investors believe the next big move for the S&P 500 could come on Friday, when the U.S. Labor Department will say how many more jobs U.S. employers created than destroyed during May. The expectation on Wall Street is for a slowdown in hiring from April.
A resilient job market has been one of the linchpins that’s propped up the U.S. economy, and the worry is that all the uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s on-and-off tariffs could cause businesses to freeze their hiring.
A report on Thursday said that more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected. The number still remains relatively low compared with history, but it hit its highest level in eight months.
The data came as Procter & Gamble, the giant behind such brands as Pampers diapers and Cascade dish detergent, said it will cut up to 7,000 jobs over the next two years to boost its ability to make profit. Its stock fell 1.7%.
A separate report from the U.S. government said that U.S. workers overall produced less stuff per hour during the start of the year than economists expected. The drop in productivity is a potentially discouraging trend for inflation.
On Wall Street, Five Below rallied 7.9% after the retailer, which sells products priced between $1 and $5, reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Winnie Park credited broad-based strength across most of its merchandise.
MongoDB jumped 17.2% after the database company likewise delivered a stronger profit than analysts expected.
On the losing side of Wall Street was Brown-Forman, the company behind Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve. Its stock fell 15% and was potentially heading for its worst day since it began trading in 1972.
Brown-Forman’s profit and revenue for the latest quarter fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, and the company said it expects its upcoming fiscal year to be challenging because of “consumer uncertainty, the potential impact from currently unknown tariffs” and other things.
The CEO of PVH, the company behind the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, likewise cited challenges from “an increasingly uncertain consumer and macroeconomic backdrop.”
Its stock fell 18.9% even though it reported stronger revenue and profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company cut its profit forecast for its full fiscal year, saying it will likely be able to offset only some of the potential hit it will take because of tariffs.
Hopes that Trump would lower his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries have been among the main reasons the S&P 500 has rallied back after dropping roughly 20% below its record two months ago. But talks are still ongoing, and nothing is assured. In the meantime, many companies have been cutting or withdrawing their forecasts for profit this upcoming year because of all the uncertainty.
Trump spoke with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, on Thursday amid hopes for progress between the world’s two largest economies. The conversation was confirmed by the Chinese foreign ministry, which said Trump initiated the call. The White House did not immediately comment.
Expectations are also building that the Federal Reserve will need to cut interest rates later this year in order to prop up the economy. Yields took a sharp turn lower on Wednesday after a pair of weaker-than-expected reports on the U.S. economy bolstered traders’ bets for a cut.
The Fed has been keeping interest rates on hold this year after slashing them through the end of 2024. Part of the reason for the pause is that the Fed wants to see how much Trump’s tariffs will hurt the economy and raise inflation. While lower interest rates could boost the economy, they also tend to give inflation more fuel.
Treasury yields held steadier on Thursday ahead of Friday’s jobs report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.34% from 4.37% late Wednesday after tumbling from 4.46% the day before.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were modestly lower across much of Europe after the European Central Bank cut its main interest rate again, as was widely expected.
The moves were larger in Asia, where South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.5% after the country’s new president and leading liberal politician Lee Jae-myung began his term, vowing to restart talks with North Korea and beef up a partnership with the U.S. and Japan.
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.