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* Weekly unemployment claims are declining
* All eyes on Biden’s press conference later in the day
* Nike skids on social media fallout on Xinjiang’s statement
* Futures discount: Dow 0.45%, S&P 0.44%, Nasdaq 0.55% (adds note; updates prices)
March 25 (Reuters) – Major Wall Street indices would open lower on Thursday, dragged down by technology and bank stocks, while data showed unemployment claims fell last week as the labor market continued to limp from a coronavirus-induced recession.
The Department of Labor’s weekly unemployment report, the most current indicator of economic health, showed that initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell to 684,000 for the week ending March 20, from 781,000 in the previous week.
“Most investors assume that we will return to a much more normal economy after this summer,” said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.
“They assume today’s numbers are not that meaningful when you consider that the economy may fully reopen later in the year.”
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has fallen this month as rosy economic projections increased demand for undervalued stocks, including energy, mining and industrial companies, but raised fears of higher inflation and a potential tax hike.
In testimony before Congress this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell expressed optimism about a strong US economic recovery, while Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said future tax increases will be needed to pay for public investment.
President Joe Biden is expected to set a new target for US vaccinations against COVID-19 at his first formal White House press conference starting at 1:15 PM ET (1715 GMT). Next week, he will also unveil a multi-billion dollar infrastructure plan in Pittsburgh.
“It’s a tale of two different markets right now and it depends on what the market wants to focus on,” said Faron Daugs, founder and CEO of Harrison Wallace Financial Group.
“It wants to focus on stimulus measures, increased vaccinations and reopening of economies or on possible taxes, possibly increased regulation in certain sectors, extremely high spending and inflation.”
Economically sensitive bank stocks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, gave up early gains, falling between 0.3% and 0.7% in premarket trading.
Heavyweight technology stocks Facebook Inc, Google parent company Alphabet Inc and Twitter Inc fell between 0.8% and 2.7% of their chief executives’ testimony before Congress about extremism and misinformation about their services.
At 8:50 a.m. ET, Dow’s e-minis were down 144 points or 0.45%, the S&P 500’s e-minis were down 17 points or 0.44%, and the Nasdaq 100’s e-minis were down 70.25 points or 0.55%.
Shares of Nike Inc fell 5.7% when the sporting goods giant faced a response to Chinese social media over its comments on reports of forced labor in Xinjiang.
US-listed shares of Baidu Inc, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.Com Inc were subdued after the US securities regulator took steps that would kick foreign companies off the stock exchange if they fail to meet US auditing standards. (Reported by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; edited by Arun Koyyur and Maju Samuel)