Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq fall after Christmas break

US stocks fell Thursday as trading resumed after the Christmas holiday, as Wall Street digested one of the only economic data points of the week.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down 0.3% while the the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) declined 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) lost 0.4%, leading the way down.

Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC-USD) slumped, falling below the $96,000 level as volatile trading continued. Crypto-linked stocks like MicroStrategy (MSTR) tracked the declines.

Markets looked to be struggling in a bid to extend the start of the “Santa Claus rally,” which kicked off with a bang on Tuesday. All three major indexes rose around 1%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) are within striking distance of their records after clawing back gains from a Fed-fueled dive last week.

As Wall Street saunters back from its holiday break, the normally routine release on weekly jobless claims took more of a spotlight than usual, as the only piece of the jobs puzzle on the docket this week.

Labor Department data released prior to the market open showed weekly jobless claims fell to 219,000 compared with expectation of 223,000. However continuing claims surged to 1.19 million in the week ending December 14 to the highest level since November 2021, in a sign the labor market may be cooling.

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