Wednesday was a short, quiet day on Wall Street as the markets closed at 1 p.m. in observation of the Christmas Eve holiday.
During the brief trading day, most investors chose to focus on the weekly jobs report, where claims fell below 300,000 to bring some holiday cheer to the employment market. Pharmaceutical companies experienced a slight bounce, after the biotechnology sector was hit hard on Tuesday in the wake of concerns over prescription costs in the coming year.
The big stories remained the ongoing plummet of oil prices, coupled with further declines in the Russian economy—this time based off news of the country’s credit rating falling to near-junk status.
The market will remain closed tomorrow for Christmas Day before re-opening Friday.
Here were the final numbers from Wall Street on Wednesday:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 18,030.21 (+6.04)
NASDAQ: 4,773.47 (+8.05)
S&P 500: 2,081.88 (-0.29)
