WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following the upward trend seen over the past several sessions, stocks are turning in a lackluster performance during trading on Thursday. The major averages have spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.
Currently, the major averages are turning in a mixed performance, with the Dow slightly higher. The Dow is up 9.92 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 26,279.81, while the Nasdaq is down 36.14 points or 0.4 percent at 9,646.77 and the S&P 500 is down 8.35 points or 0.3 percent at 3,114.52.
The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders take a breath to digest the recent strength on Wall Street, which lifted the Nasdaq-100 to a record intraday high in early trading.
Traders may also be reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.
Economists currently expect employment to tumble by about 8.0 million jobs in May after plunging by 20.5 million jobs in April. The unemployment rate is expected to jump to 19.8 percent from 14.7 percent.
The Labor Department released a report this morning showing the pace of decline in first-time claims for unemployment benefits has begun to stall a bit.
A report from the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims tumbled to 1.877 million in the week ended May 30th, a decrease of 249,000 from the previous week's revised level of 2.126 million.
However, economists had expected jobless claims to slump to 1.800 million from the 2.123 million originally reported for the previous week.
Jobless claims pulled back further off the record high of 6.867 million set in the week ended March 28th, although the number of new claims since the coronavirus lockdowns now exceeds 42.6 million.
The report also showed an unexpected increase in continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, which jumped by 649,000 to 21.487 million in the week ended May 23rd.
Despite the weekly increase, economists at Oxford Economics noted continuing claims remain below their peak, suggesting 'a small amount of rehiring may be starting to take place.'
Earlier in the day, some buying interest was generated in reaction to the European Central Bank announcing additional stimulus to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The ECB announced that it will increase its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme by 600 billion euros. The bank announced plans to purchase 750 billion euros of government bonds back in March.
Sector News
Utilities stocks have come under pressure over the course of the session, dragging the Dow Jones Utility Average down by 1.6 percent. The average is pulling back off its best closing level in nearly three months.
Other interest rate-sensitive stocks such as commercial real estate stocks are also seeing notable weakness, with the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate Index falling by 1.2 percent.
On the other hand, significant strength remains visible among banking stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent jump by the KBW Bank Index. The index has reached its best intraday level in nearly three months.
Oil service socks are also seeing considerable strength despite a decrease by the price of crude oil, with the Philadelphia Oil Service Index surging up by 2.4 percent even though crude for July delivery is sliding $0.48 to $36.81 a barrel.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher on Thursday, although China's Shanghai Composite Index bucked the uptrend and edged down by 0.1 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose by 0.4 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index dipped by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell 0.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
In the bond market, treasuries are extending the significant decrease seen in the previous session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 4.1 basis points at 0.802 percent.
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