On Tuesday, the S&P 500 stock index ended the day in a correction, a Wall Street time period for a big decline from a recent high. Shares of Southwest Airlines fell 2 p.c after the company mentioned in its quarterly earnings report that it expects to report a loss for the first three months of 2022 amid headwinds brought on by the Omicron variant. In a separate report on Thursday, the Labor Department mentioned weekly claims for state unemployment advantages fell last week after three consecutive weeks of increases. There had been 260,000 new claims for unemployment insurance, down from 290,000, a dip that may recommend a slowdown of the Omicron variant’s results on the labor market.
