Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your Closing Bell Brief for Thursday, February 5th. I'm Catherine Sullivan for The Wall Street Journal. U.S. stocks fell sharply today as tech jitters and labor market data worried investors. All three major indexes dropped more than 1%. The Nasdaq led the decline with a 1.6% loss. The Dow and the S&P 500 were both down 1.2%.
New data showed surprisingly high unemployment claims and low job openings. Another report showed last month was also the worst January for planned corporate job cuts since 2009. Among individual companies, Amazon shares dropped over 4% before an earnings report that disappointed investors.
Chapter 2: What labor market data is causing concern for investors?
After the bell, the stock continued to fall nearly 9%. Qualcomm shares sank 8.5% after the chipmaker issued a weak earnings forecast. Estee Lauder shares tumbled 19% because the company expects a $100 million hit from tariffs. Shell shares lost over 3% after weaker oil trading performance hit its quarterly profit.
And Arm Holdings shares gained nearly 6% as demand for its artificial intelligence chip designs increased.
Heads up, an artificial intelligence tool helped us make this episode by creating summaries that were based on WSJ reporting and then reviewed and adapted by an editor. We'll have a lot more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast. You can add it to your playlist on your smart speaker or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.