US open: Stocks dip after jump in reported coronavirus cases
By Alexander Bueso
Date: Thursday 13 Feb 2020
(Sharecast News) - Stocks were drifting lower on Thursday afternoon on the back of news of an unpward revision to the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China.
A change in the methodology in how cases in the province of Hubei were categorised led to a 15,152 surge in the number of reported infections.
"It seems stock markets are not entirely immune to the effects of COVID-19, but they are putting up quite a fight in the face of more distressing figures on Wednesday," said Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam.
"I do wonder how bad this needs to get before confidence among the buy-the-dippers starts to be tested."
By 1604 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrials was down 0.30% to 29,462.03, alongside a 0.18% dip for the S&P 500 to 3,373.55 while the Nasdaq Composite was drifting lower by 0.07% to 9,720.47.
Nvidia and Expedia were slated to report were scheduled to report after the bell.
The latest batch of economic data was mixed, with the latest print on consumer prices pointing firmly higher but levels of staff firings remaining near record lows.
Consumer prices in the US advanced at a year-on-year pace of 2.5% in January, versus the 2.3% seen in the month before, as expected.
But at the core level CPI was steady versus the month before at up by 2.3%, and according to economists the rent and medical components needed to be watched carefully.
Weekly jobless claims meanwhile edged up by 2,000 to 205,000 (consensus: 210,000).
Commenting on the claims figures, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics said: "The eight-week average has returned to its pre-holiday level, 214K, suggesting that the pace of layoffs is little changed in recent months, despite sharp falls in survey-based measures of employment.
"Firms don't like the trade war, and they have slowed the pace of gross hiring, but firings haven't moved at all, net."
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