U.S. stock markets: Live updates

Stocks opened lower Thursday.

The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.5%, falling for a fourth straight day, while the S&P 500 slumped 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered near the flatline.

— Samantha Subin

A round of economic data Thursday morning showed a tight labor market in which costs are rising more than expected.

Initial jobless claims totaled a seasonally adjusted 216,000 for the week ended Sept. 2, a drop of 13,000 from the previous period and below the Dow Jones estimate for 230,000, the Labor Department reported. Continuing claims, which run a week behind, totaled 1.679 million, down 40,000 and below the FactSet estimate for 1.725 million.

A separate report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that unit labor costs, a calculation of hourly compensation minus productivity, increased 2.2% in the second quarter, higher than the 1.9% estimate.

Nonfarm productivity, or output per hour, increased 3.5% for the quarter, a 0.2 percentage point downward revision but 0.1 percentage point above the forecast, the BLS said.

—Jeff Cox

Here are Thursday’s biggest premarket movers:

• WestRock — Shares added 6.7% after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company is nearing a merger with Europe’s Smurfit Kappa in a deal that could create a global paper and packaging giant worth around $20 billion.
• Apple — Apple shares fell 2.9% after Bloomberg News reported China is planning to extend a ban on iPhone use to state-owned corporations.
• Dutch Bros — The drive-through coffee chain dropped 5.8% in premarket trading after it announced a public offering of $300 million in shares of its Class A common stock after market close Wednesday.

Read here for the full list of stocks on the move.

— Pia Singh

McDonald’s shares advanced about 1% in premarket trading after Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to overweight and said the fast-food chain was “firing on all cylinders.”

“Despite well-telegraphed deceleration, we see upside to 2H,” analyst Zachary Fadem told clients. And even after beating same-store comparable stats in the first and second quarter, “we believe MCD is just getting started.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Alex Harring

Apple shares fell more than 2% after Bloomberg News reported China is planning to extend a ban on iPhone use to state-owned corporations. A day earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported the China was moving to prohibit iPhone usage in government agencies.

Bank of America’s Savita Subramanian said the bank expects the equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 to outperform the cap-weighted version of the index. “Why? (1) profits growth troughed in 2Q, and investors tend to become price sensitive as growth accelerates. (2) value stocks are historically inexpensive; and(3) our regime model shifted to Recovery, which favors deep value.”

— Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom

China’s exports and imports fell less than expected in August, declining 8.8% and 7.3% year on year respectively.

This is less steep than the fall of 9.2% in exports and 9% in imports expected by economists polled by Reuters.

The country’s trade balance came in at $68.36 billion, less than the $80.6 billion seen in June and also lower than the $73.9 billion expected in the Reuters poll.

— Lim Hui Jie

Australia’s trade surplus for July came in at 8.04 billion Australian dollars ($7 billion), almost a third lower than June’s revised figure of AU$10.27 billion.

This figure was also lower than the AU$10 billion surplus expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Exports fell 2% on a monthly basis, led by a fall in driven by non-monetary gold, while imports were 2.5% higher, driven by imports of non-industrial transport equipment.

— Lim Hui Jie

India’s consumer market is set to become the world’s third largest by 2027 as the number of middle- to high-income households rise, according to a report by BMI.

The report predicted that growth in India’s household spending per capita will outpace that of other developing Asian economies like Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand at 7.8% year-on-year.

BMI estimates India’s household spending will exceed $3 trillion as disposable income rises by a compounded 14.6% annually until 2027. By then, a projected 25.8% of Indian households will reach $10,000 in annual disposable income.

“The majority of these households will be located in the economic centres, such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The wealthier households are mainly located in urban areas, making it easy for retailers to target their key target markets,” BMI said. 

Read the full story here.

— Charmaine Jacob

October West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil contracts touched an intraday $88.08 per barrel Wednesday, the highest price since Nov. 15, 2022, when crude traded at $88.68 a barrel. (A barrel of oil holds 42 gallons). WTI is hiugher by 9.1% so far in 2023.

November Brent contracts, the global benchmark, closed at $90.60 a barrel Wednesday and are ahead by 5.5% in 2023.

September RBOB gasoline futures (the RBOB stands for reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending) rose 0.80% Wednesday to $2.6014 a gallon, up 5.8% for the year-to-date.

— Scott Schnipper, Gina Francolla

Stock futures were little changed Wednesday, with Wall Street now focusing on the Federal Reserve’s future path for benchmark interest rates.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 9 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 futures ticked down 0.02% while Nasdaq futures declined 0.06%.

— Brian Evans