US equity indexes traded mixed on Thursday as technology declined amid gains in government bond yields following an increase in jobless claims.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.2% to 19,979.5, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% to 6,103.1, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.8% to 44,528.3. The S&P 500 touched a new record of 6,103.92 intraday Wednesday, with the Dow and the Nasdaq hovering close to their all-time highs. Industrials and utilities led the top gainers intraday, while consumer discretionary was among the decliners.
US initial jobless claims rose to 223,000 in the week ended Jan. 18 from 217,000 in the previous week, compared with expectations for 220,000 in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. The four-week moving average increased by 750 to 213,500, the US Labor Department said Thursday.
"A rise in claims in California that may reflect the recent fires led an increase in initial jobless claims, but claims remain at levels consistent with relatively few layoffs," Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, said in a research note Thursday. "Continued jobless claims, meanwhile, are still somewhat elevated as a slow pace of hiring continues to make it difficult for unemployed workers to find new jobs."
Most US Treasury yields rose, with the benchmark 10-year jumping 5.1 basis points to 4.65%. The two-year rate was steady at 4.29%.
President Donald Trump spoke about defense spending, fossil fuel production, taxes, and inflation in a virtual speech delivered to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"I'll demand that interest rates drop immediately. And likewise, they should be dropping all over the world," Trump said via video conference, Reuters reported. "I'm also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil."
West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures dropped 0.6% to $75.01 a barrel as President Trump's comments seemed to outweigh a steeper-than-expected decline in oil reserves.
US commercial crude oil stocks, excluding inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 1 million barrels during the week ended Jan. 17, following a 2-million-barrel dive in the previous week, versus the 400,000-barrel slump anticipated in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.
In company news, Electronic Arts (EA) shares slumped 17% intraday, the worst performer on the S&P 500, after the company reported late Wednesday preliminary fiscal Q3 net revenue of about $1.88 billion that missed market expectations.
The top performer on the index and the Nasdaq Composite was GE Aerospace (GE), up 6.7% intraday after the company said Thursday it plans to buy back $7 billion of its shares this year and increase its dividend by 30%.
Gold futures fell 0.2% to $2,765.81 an ounce, and their silver counterpart slumped 1.8% to $30.84 per ounce.
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