The Dow Jones (DJIA) is trading slightly higher following two encouraging updates on the labor market and economy.
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For the week ended August 23, Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell by 5,000 to 229,000, slightly below the estimate of 230,000. On top of that, continuing jobless claims declined by 7,000 to 1.954 million, also below the estimate of 1.966 million. The data points show that companies are hesitant to both fire and hire employees amid a volatile high-tariff environment. At the same time, the unemployment rate has remained between 4.0% and 4.2% since January, signaling no major detrimental effects from the new duties.
More broadly, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis now expects second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 3.3%, up from its first estimate of 3.0% and higher than the estimate of 3.1%. That marks a solid recovery from the first quarter’s GDP drop of 0.5%, led by fewer imports and increased consumer spending. Consumer spending contributes roughly 70% to GDP and grew by 1.6% compared to 0.5% during the first quarter.
Meanwhile, Fed Governor Lisa Cook has filed a lawsuit against President Trump in an effort to retain her position. Last week, Trump attempted to fire Cook in an unprecedented move, accusing her of committing mortgage fraud by claiming two separate properties as her principal residence. Cook’s lawyer argued that Trump’s action goes against the Federal Reserve Act, “which explicitly requires a showing of ‘cause’ for a Governor’s removal, which an unsubstantiated allegation about private mortgage applications submitted by Governor Cook prior to her Senate confirmation is not.”
The Dow Jones is up by 0.08% at the time of writing.
Which Stocks are Moving the Dow Jones?
Let’s pivot to TipRanks’ Dow Jones Heatmap, which illustrates the stocks that have contributed to the index’s price action.
Nvidia (NVDA) is leading all tech stocks lower after the semiconductor leader reported its second-quarter earnings. While the company’s revenue and adjusted EPS came in above estimates, its data center revenue of $41.10 billion fell short of the expectation for $41.25 billion. NVDA was able to erase some of its early morning losses after CEO Jensen Huang said that he is in talks with the Trump administration concerning the sale of Blackwell chips to China.
On the other hand, Salesforce (CRM) is in positive territory ahead of its earnings report on September 3. Cisco (CSCO) is also enjoying gains after snagging a single-vendor secure access service edge (SASE) deal with AT&T (T).
Elsewhere, all four Dow Jones healthcare stocks are trading lower, while Amazon (AMZN) is in the green again, bringing its five-day gain to about 5%.
DIA Stock Moves Higher with the Dow Jones
The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) is an exchange-traded fund designed to track the movement of the Dow Jones. As a result, DIA is rising alongside the Dow Jones today.
Wall Street believes that DIA stock has room to rise. During the past three months, analysts have issued an average DIA price target of $497.81, implying upside of 9.11% from current prices. The 31 stocks in DIA carry 29 buy ratings, two hold ratings, and zero sell ratings.