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
Tested EN...
Asian stock markets weakened for the second consecutive day, indicating that the initial rally that had been "speedy" at the start of the year is starting to lose steam. At the same time, US governmen...
US stocks were mixed on Wednesday as investors weighed uneven economic data against expectations for eventual Federal Reserve easing, with the S&P 500 easing 0.2% and the Dow Jones sliding 0.8% fr...
European stocks were in mixed territory on Wednesday morning, as regional market jitters grow over U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to annex Greenland. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was little chang...
Asian stock markets weakened slightly on Wednesday after posting their best start to the year in history. The decline was driven by a decline in Japanese stocks amid escalating tensions with China. Th...
Oil prices stabilized on Thursday (February 12th), as the market reassigned a risk premium to US-Iran tensions despite US inventory data showing swelling domestic supplies. This movement confirms one thing: geopolitical headlines are still more...
Gold prices weakened slightly on Thursday (February 12th), as more solid US employment data reduced market confidence in an imminent Federal Reserve interest rate cut. The strong employment data prompted market participants to shift expectations of...
The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to...