Small caps push lower as soft earnings counter claims dip

Small-cap shares pushed lower early Thursday, unable to sustain a mild opening bump when weekly claims numbers came in better than expected. At 10:03 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 6.46, or 0.91%, at 701.65.

The New Home Sales report, which came out at 10:00 a.m. ET were weak, which was no surprise, and took some of the supportive edge off the weekly claims data. New home sales were at an annual rate of 526,000 last month, which was below the forecast of 585,000, and was the lowest rate since October 1991.

It should be noted that durable goods orders, which also came out ahead of the opening this morning, were softer than expected. In addition, the weekly claims figures are often volatile, and even though today’s headline number was better than the forecast, the claims numbers still point to extensive layoffs and a rise in the unemployment rate.

Even though the market was able to sink its teeth into some fresh economic data this morning for the first time since Tuesday, the focus point remains fixed on earnings, which served up mixed signals into today’s action.

Among large-cap headline companies, Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq:SBUX) missed the forecast and was pummeled early today, trading down 10% just after the cash U.S. opening. In addition, Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN) had sloppy results and was down 4% early today. On the upside, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) had a surprising . . .

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