Stocks ended lower on Thursday as investors digested a better-than-expected prints on the labor market, as well as a report that President Joe Biden would be open to revising his proposal to increase the corporate tax rate.
The Washington Post reported that Biden was reconsidering his previous proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, which had been seen as a major roadblock to winning Republican support for his infrastructure plans. Instead, he would recommend a minimum corporate tax rate of 15%, according to the news outlet.
Meanwhile, investors considered a handful of stronger-than-expected reports on the state of the labor market in the U.S. ADP posted its closely watched report on private payroll changes for May Thursday morning, which showed a better than expected 978,000 jobs were added back last month versus the 650,000 expected. And the Labor Department’s report on new weekly unemployment claims showed that new filings broke below 400,000 for the first time since March 2020, with fewer individuals becoming newly unemployed as more areas of the economy reopen.
