U.S. stocks were mixed on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.5% and the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite up 0.2% and 0.8%, respectively. Walmart Inc shares rose 1.3% after the retailer reported strong first-quarter sales and raised its full-year forecast. Cisco Systems Inc shares dipped 0.2% after the networking hardware maker reported a drop in orders.
New jobless claims of 242,000 were lower than expectations and lower than the prior week, another sign of a tight labor market. Existing home sales fell 3.4% in April from the prior month, well more than expected.
Two-thirds of futures traders expect the Federal Reserve to pause its interest rate hikes when it meets in June, as officials assess how well their actions to date have done to cool inflation. However, Dallas Federal Reserve President Lorie Logan said the economic data doesn’t justify a pause.
The debt ceiling is also in focus, with Congress and President Joe Biden needing to raise or suspend it in the next couple of weeks to avoid the possibility of default. Biden is in Japan for the G-7 meeting, where the debt ceiling will likely be a topic of conversation.