Dow falls more than 30 points, but Nasdaq ekes out fifth straight gain; European stocks finish off session lows; Bank of England expands bond buying; Wirecard down 60%; BELEX15 keeps low gear decline ahead of parliamentary elections
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for a second straight day on Thursday as investors weighed the rising number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. and around the world along with disappointing unemployment data. The 30-stock Dow closed 39.51 points lower, or 0.2%, at 26,080.10. The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, climbed 0.3% to 9,943.05 for its fifth consecutive gain. The S&P 500 ended the session up 0.1% at 3,115.34.
Initial U.S. weekly jobless claims rose more than expected last week, coming in at 1.508 million. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a print of 1.3 million.

European stocks closed lower on Thursday afternoon after the Bank of England expanded its bond-buying program and held interest rates steady at 0.1%.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 finished off session lows but fell 0.6% amid a choppy session. Banks and basic resources dropped around 1.2% to lead losses while chemicals stocks bucked the downward trend to add 0.7%.
In terms of individual share price action, German payments company Wirecard plummeted around 60% after again delaying the publication of its 2019 financial report. The company claimed it needed more time to work with auditor EY to address alleged balance sheet inconsistencies.

BELEX15 keeps declining ahead of parliamentary elections for Sunday 21st June. The index lost additional 0.25% as NIS was down 1.1%, while Metalac lost symbolic 0.05%. These two companies were only worth mentioning when it comes to market activity. This was the sixth straight day of declining trend at BELEX but momentum is pretty slow.
From broad economy, we had the latest “Vienna Initiative” report, which said, Serbia and Slovenia are two countries from the region with the lowest NPL ratio level at the end of 2019. Serbia was at 4.1%, while Slovenia at 3.4%.
Source: CNBC, Ilirika