Stocks were treading water on Thursday, as investors weighed weekly jobless claims that dipped below 1 million for the first time since mid-March against more stalled talks on Capitol Hill over another stimulus bill.
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Although initial claims for the week ending Aug. 8 were 963,000, far less than the 1.15 million expected, the fact remains that there’s still an incredibly weak labor market in the U.S., and more aid is needed to prevent an economy in severe recession from sinking further into it.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 80 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 27,896 on Thursday.
Apple, Fortnite storm is brewing. Epic Games, the developer behind the hit video game Fortnite, is suing Apple (ticker: AAPL) after the iPhone giant removed Fortnite from Apple’s app store for violating its guidelines. Fortnite had offered users a discount for in-game purchases made directly through Epic Games, circumventing Apple’s in-app purchase service, which is required and which gives Apple a 30% cut of any sales.
Epic Games’ lawsuit alleges this policy is anticompetitive, an argument that may hold some weight in the aftermath of recent Capitol Hill antitrust hearings with four of the Big Tech giants, including Apple.
Sell-off in Cisco. Shares of Cisco Systems ( CSCO) plunged 11% on Thursday as investors sold the stock on weak guidance for its current quarter. The company also announced that its chief financial officer, Kelly Kramer, is retiring. On Wall Street, the unanticipated departure of a CFO is often received negatively; while rare in the grander scheme of things, it can indicate a problem with the company’s financials or accounting.
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Jobless Claims Under 1 Million; Apple’s Fortnite Tiff originally appeared on usnews.com
