US stocks edged up on Thursday, as investors weighed a flood of corporate earnings and more labor market data.
At 9:45 a.m. ET (14:45 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 40 points, or 0.1%, the S&P 500 was up 11 points, or 0.2%, and the NASDAQ Composite was up 25 points, or 0.1%.
The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits edged up more than expected last week, consistent with a slowing labor market.
Initial jobless claims came in at 219,000 in the week ended Feb. 1. The previous week's figure was revised up slightly by 1,000 to 208,000, while economists had expected a reading of 214,000.
The data comes ahead of Friday's release of the all-important nonfarm payrolls report for January, which should provide a glimpse into labor demand that Federal Reserve policymakers are closely watching. Economists expect the U.S. economy added 169,000 jobs last month, down from 256,000 in December.
Earlier this week, separate data showed that private payrolls rose in January, while job openings fell by the most in 14 months. Still, resilient hiring and a relatively low rate of layoffs have suggested that the labor market is not entering a sudden downturn, strengthening the case for the Fed to leave interest rates unchanged at least through June.(Newsmaker23)
Source: Investing.com
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