Dow Jones continues to fall as oil prices climb

Markets are struggling on a "thin fare of headlines," according to Chris Beauchamp, main investing serviceman astatine IG.

“While images of warfare proceed to rotation crossed screens astir the globe, and Iranian missiles and drones onslaught different countries, markets person small upon which to basal a sustained rally," Beauchamp wrote Thursday.

"The president’s committedness to escort ships has failed to enactment a bounce, fixed the difficulties which the US Navy faced successful trying to decision the little well-armed Houthis, and portion immoderate headlines suggest Iran has asked for negotiations, some sides proceed to hurl ordnance astatine 1 another. Until this calms down, investors volition proceed to instrumentality the risk-off approach.”

Initial jobless claims successful the U.S. held dependable astatine 213,000 for the week ended February 28, somewhat beneath economists’ forecast of 215,000, Labor Department information showed.

Continuing claims roseate to 1.86 million, supra the expected 1.84 million. Rhode Island, Oklahoma, and Tennessee reported the largest increases successful archetypal claims.

The information comes up of Friday’s intimately watched February nonfarm payrolls report, with economists projecting 55,000 jobs added, pursuing January’s 130,000 gain.

Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO, XETRA:1YD) shares climbed 4.5% connected Thursday pursuing the merchandise of robust quarterly results and upbeat guardant guidance.

According to Wedbush, Broadcom reported AI silicon income maturation of 140% and provided a enactment of show to $100 cardinal successful spot income by 2027, backed by six large customers. The institution besides confirmed it has secured proviso to conscionable this anticipated demand.

Wedbush noted that portion the ramp-up extracurricular of tensor processing units (TPUs) remains unclear, Broadcom’s outlook aligns with expectations for continued scaling of AI demand. Additionally, the institution highlighted that large-scale deployments are moving from copper to optical interconnects beyond 400 Gb/s, though copper remains the astir businesslike mean for speeds up to that threshold.

US stocks person opened successful the red, but the tech-powered Nasdaq is adjacent to breaking adjacent already, down little than 0.1%.

The Dow Jones is down 0.8%, and the S&P 500 opened 0.25% lower. Small caps are lagging, with the Russell 2000 falling 0.9%.

Biggest fallers connected the Dow are Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co, Walmart and Procter & Gamble,

Broadcom is up 2.1%, with bigger Nasdaq risers being Atlassian, Booking Holdings, DoorDash, Datadog and CrowdStrike.