Stock Market Today: Stocks Slide Ahead of September Jobs Report

Stocks popped higher out of the gate Thursday after early morning data showed a bigger-than-expected jump in weekly jobless claims. But the gain was short-lived, with markets turning lower after a Federal Reserve official chimed in on rate hikes. Thursday's trading marked the second straight loss in a week that started out with a remarkable 765-point gain for the Dow.

Ahead of the opening bell, the Labor Department said initial unemployment claims were up by 29,000 in the week ended Oct. 1, to 219,000, a five-week high. But the big jobs news comes tomorrow with the release of the nonfarm payrolls report for September. Consensus expectations are for the U.S. to have added 248,000 jobs last month (down from August's 315,000) and the unemployment rate to remain steady at 3.7%. 

Tomorrow's jobs report will give the Federal Reserve another clue as to whether or not its aggressive rate-hike campaign is working to slow growth. But ahead of this data point, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, who is typically considered one of the more dovish members of the central bank, said at a banking conference today in Minnesota that he is seeing "almost no evidence that underlying inflation is coming down." As such, he is "not comfortable saying we are going to pause [hiking rates]," Kashkari added.

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By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.2% at 29,926, the S&P 500 Index was off 1.0% at 3,744, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.7% lower at 11,073.

Other news in the stock market today:

• The small-cap Russell 2000 shed 0.6% to 1,752.
• U.S. crude futures rose 0.8% to $88.45 per barrel, notching their fourth straight win.
• Gold futures were unchanged at $1,720.80 an ounce.
• Bitcoin slipped 0.6% to $20,012.81. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m.)
• Pinterest (PINS (opens in new tab)) stock jumped 4.9% after Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan upgraded the social media stock to Buy from Neutral (the equivalent of Hold). The analyst cited the company's "improved user growth/engagement trends in the short/medium term and the potential for upside to revenue growth trajectory and operating margin estimates as we move into 2023/2024."
• Weed stocks jumped after President Joe Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted at the federal level for marijuana possession, as well as those convicted in the District of Columbia. "Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit," Biden said in a statement. He also asked the secretary of Health and Human Services and the attorney general to "initiate the administrative process to review expeditiously how marijuana is scheduled under federal law." Canopy Growth (CGC (opens in new tab), +22.2%), Curaleaf Holdings (CURLF (opens in new tab), +33.1%) and Cresco Labs (CRLBF (opens in new tab) +24.4%) were among the day's biggest gainers.

AI's Top Stock Picks

This week's price action reminds us that the stock market is still prone to volatile swings. While these wild up-and-down moves aren't for the faint of heart, they can create exciting opportunities for stock pickers. 

Some of the most skilled stock pickers, like Warren Buffett or billionaires Philippe Laffont and David Tepper, have used the market pullback to go bargain hunting for equities. While not everyone has access to the research and insights these deep-pocketed players do, tactical investors trying to find some of the top stocks to watch do have options. Danelfin, an analytics platform that harnesses the power of big data technology and machine learning, is one of them. This artificial intelligence (AI) system analyzes hundreds of fundamental, technical and sentiment data points per day for 1,000 U.S.-listed shares and 600 European-listed firms, then generates several stock picks that it views as highly likely to outperform the market over the next 30 to 90 sessions. 

So, what does Danelfin say investors should be buying now? Read on as we take a look at the platform's latest high-scoring stocks.