Stocks Gave Up Early Gains and Traded in the Red

U.S. stocks gave up early gains and traded in the red on Thursday morning, as investors digested a shock move by the Swiss National Bank to lift the cap from its currency as well as a mixed bag of economic releases. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 42.87 points, or 0.25%, to 17,384.22. The S&P 500 was dwon 8.21 points, or 0.41%, to 2,003.06. The Nasdaq Composite lost 26.85 points, or 0.58%, to 4,612.47.

U.S. producer prices in December recorded their biggest fall in more than three years on tumbling energy costs while underlying inflation pressures were muted, a cautionary note for the Federal Reserve as it ponders its next step on monetary policy. The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand declined 0.3 percent, the biggest drop since October 2011, after falling 0.2 percent in November.

The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits in the first week of January shot up to the highest level in four months. Initial jobless claims climbed 19,000 to 316,000 in the seven days ended Jan 10, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Gold prices jumped more than 2 percent after earlier hitting a 4-month high on Thursday as European shares and the dollar turned lower after a shock move by Switzerland to abandon its three-year cap on the franc sent Europe’s shares and bond yields tumbling. Spot gold rose as much as
2.4 percent to its highest level since Sept. at $1,260.30 an ounce in earlier trade and was last up 2.1 percent at $1,255 an ounce.

Less than two years after opening in Canada, Target said on Thursday that it would close its 133 stores in the country, laying off 17,600 people. The Canadian operation was also placed under bankruptcy protection.

Citigroup (C) reported fourth quarter earnings that fell short of expectations after the bank lowered its guidance a month ago. The nation’s
third largest bank by assets reported 6-cents in earnings per share (EPS) on revenue of $17.8 billion, missing analyst estimates of a 9-cent
profit on $18.5 billion in revenue.