Markets fall, US job growth “will remain soft”

Markets were mostly lower on Thursday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent, the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.8 percent and the Nikkei 225 fell 0.2 percent.

“Stocks are sliding across the board with high-multiple growth names getting hit the hardest thanks to the unrelenting rise in yields,” said Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge.

However, the rise in US Treasury yields paused on Thursday after a report showed that inital claims for unemployment insurance totalled 793,000 last week, above the 760,000 forecast from economists.

Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group, said that “job growth will remain soft for the next few months as the nation continues to struggle with the pandemic” but “will pick up in the spring”.