The Closing Look

Stocks opened higher but quickly gave up the gains and spent most of the day near unchanged as sellers remained in control. Overnight, two major central banks moved away from an ultra-easy money stance. The Bank of England and China’s Central Bank both said they will not do more to stimulate markets right now. The BOE dropped guidance of a further rate cut. Instead, China’s Central Bank said it wants to take measure to cut the froth out of the system. In the U.S., economic data was mixed. initial jobless claims rose to 265,000, weaker than the Street’s 258,000 estimate. Elsewhere, third-quarter productivity increased by 3.1%, well above the expected rise of 2%. The ISM non-manufacturing index missed estimates last month while factory orders rose for a third straight month and topped estimates. Earnings reactions continued to awful: Facebook ($FB), FitBit ($FIT), Shopify (SHOP), Godaddy (GDDY) were among some of the big losers on Thursday. Charter communications (CHTR) gapped up at the open but immediately sold off and closed lower.

Gary’s Thoughts: Pay no attention to the Dow only down 29 points…more blow-ups and suspect action. When a market is so oversold and still goes down…not thrilling. Maybe tomorrow off of the fake job’s number.