Stock Market News Review: SPY, QQQ Spike as Soft Inflation Data Offsets Weak Jobs Report

Both the S&P 500 (SPX) and the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) closed the Thursday trading session in green territory amid mixed economic data points.

May’s producer price index (PPI), an inflation gauge for sellers, rose by 0.1% month-over-month (MoM) and 2.6% year-over-year (YoY). Economists were expecting 0.2% and 2.6%, respectively. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices from the index due to their volatility, increased by 0.1% MoM and 3.0% YoY, both below the estimates for 0.3% and 3.1%, respectively.

Initial jobless claims, or new applications for unemployment benefits, weren’t as rosy. Claims totaled 248,000 for the week ended June 7, higher than the estimate for 242,000 and unchanged from the prior week. In addition, continuing jobless claims tallied in at 1.956 million, the highest level since November 2021 and above the expectation for 1.910 million.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs (GS) now expects a 30% chance of a recession over the next 12 months, down from 35%. The investment bank also increased its 2025 U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate to 1.25% from 1.00%.

In other news, the Trump-Musk feud appears to be over. On Thursday, President Trump called the Tesla (TSLA) CEO a “friend” and said “I like Tesla.” This comes after Trump threatened to cut government contracts and subsidies to companies owned by Musk, although a White House official confirmed earlier this week that a process to review them hadn’t been initiated.

Trump also continued his criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting the federal funds rate. “We’re going to spend $600 billion a year, $600 billion because of one numbskull that sits here [and says] ‘I don’t see enough reason to cut the rates now,'” said Trump in regard to government debt payments.

The S&P 500 ended with a 0.38% gain while the Nasdaq 100 finished higher by 0.24%.