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“Tides do what tides do – they turn.” – Derek Landy

Futures are higher heading into the open and are little changed following the latest release of jobless claims.  While Wednesday’s ADP report was a disappointment, jobless claims were generally positive.  Initial claims were essentially right in line with forecasts, and at a level of 385K are within 20K of the past-COVID weekly low.  On a continuing basis, claims finally dropped below 3 million to 2.93 million.  This week’s decline of 366K was also the largest one-week drop in claims since last November.

Read today’s Morning Lineup for a recap of all the major market news and events from around the world, including a recap of German Factory Orders, some key earnings reports from around the world, the latest US and international COVID trends including our vaccination trackers, and much more.

After a bounce off its mid-July lows when it was down 10% from its 52-week high, the Russell 2000 ran out of steam right at its 50-DMA to close out the month of July.  So far, August hasn’t been particularly friendly to small caps.  While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are both comfortably higher this month, the Russell is already down over 1%.  Over the next couple of days, investors will be watching that index closely to see if the low from mid-July can hold.