Wall Street falls short of record for S&P 500

Another afternoon fade for stocks left Wall Street just shy of a record on Thursday, after the S&P 500 briefly crossed above its all-time closing high for the second straight day.

The S&P 500 dipped 6.92 points, or 0.2%, to 3,373.43. At one point during the day, it climbed above 3,386.15. That’s the record closing level it set in February, before investors appreciated how much devastation the new coronavirus would cause for the global economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 80.12, or 0.3%, to 27,896.72. The Nasdaq composite climbed 30.27, or 0.3%, to 11,042.50.

It’s just the second loss for the S&P 500 in the last 10 days. The index began stumbling in the early afternoon, as Treasury yields were accelerating following an auction of 30-year bonds by the U.S. government. Higher yields mean prices for bonds were falling.

“We saw a sell-off in bonds, and that led to a little bit of weakness in stocks,” said JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade. “It’s not a terrible day by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s also a summer day,” which are traditionally slow for markets.

Yields had already perked up before the auction, following a report showing that 963,000 U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week. It’s an incredibly high number, but it’s also the first time the tally has dropped below 1 million since March, before lockdowns caused a tsunami of layoffs.

Economists said the drop in jobless claims, which was better than expected, is an encouraging step. But they also cautioned it could be more of an outlier than a trend, and more data reports are needed to confirm it.