Pending Home Sales Crash To Record Low, Jobless Claims Soar: Wall Street Reacts

Wall Street is digesting a slew of economic data Thursday following updates on pending home sales, jobless claims and fourth quarter GDP estimates. Here's a look at the data and how the markets are reacting. 

GDP: The second estimate released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis revised fourth quarter 2024 real GDP up by less than 0.1 percentage point, due mainly to higher-than-expected increases in government spending and exports. 

There were signs of rising inflation in the GDP data, including upward revisions to price indexes closely monitored by the Federal Reserve. 

The personal consumption expenditures price index for the quarter indicated a 2.4% gain, revised up 0.1 percentage point, and a 2.7% gain, revised up 0.2 percentage points, when excluding food and energy.

Read Next: Mortgage Rates Drop To Lowest Levels Since December, But Housing Market Remains ‘Largely Stuck’ 

The revisions come as President Donald Trump promises heavier tariffs on a variety of trade partners, fueling fears that the policies could lead to lower growth and higher inflation. 

“The immediate policy changes from the new administration (immigration enforcement and tariffs) are likely to weigh on growth while providing little relief on inflation,” Morgan Stanley analyst Mike Wilson wrote in a note to clients on Monday, as reported by Yahoo Finance. 

Jobless Claims: Thursday's data also showed initial jobless claims rose by 22,000 from the previous week to 242,000, the most in over two months and above market expectations of 221,000, indicating further softening of the job market. 

However, recurring jobless claims dipped by 5,000 to 1,862,000 in the second week of February, below market expectations of 1,870,000, as tracked by Trading Economics. 

"This report showed a healthy gain, but not the first ripples of what likely will be a major wave of unemployment claims, both from layoffs in the federal workforce and at companies such as Starbucks and Southwest," wrote Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, per CNBC. 

Pending Home Sales: Pending home sales fell 4.6% in January 2025 to the lowest level on record as mortgage rates held above 7% for the entire month. 

“It is unclear if the coldest January in 25 years contributed to fewer buyers in the market, and if so, expect greater sales activity in upcoming months. However, it’s evident that elevated home prices and higher mortgage rates strained affordability," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. 

Markets React: The three major U.S. indices are mixed on Thursday with the Dow Jones trading higher and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, tracking the S&P 500, down 0.15% at $593.53. The Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ, tracking the Nasdaq 100 index, was down 0.79% at $510.52 at the time of publication Thursday. 

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