The S&P 500 and the Dow indexes fell on Thursday after data showed U.S. weekly jobless claims hit a two-month high, while a rise in megacap tech stocks, including Apple which was up over $2.00 ((+1.42%) in morning trading, offered some support to the technology-heavy Nasdaq.
The Labor Department’s report showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased by 51,000 to a seasonally adjusted 419,000 in the week ended July 17.
Investors have been closely following the health of the jobs market on which the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy hinges, especially after a series of higher inflation reading recently sparked fears about a sooner-than expected paring of policy support as the economy reopens.
Economically sensitive S&P 500 sectors declined in early trading, with energy dropping 1.2% after rising in the last two sessions. The S&P 500 technology sector was the biggest gainer among the 11 major sector indexes.
At 10:00 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 62.20 points, or 0.18%, at 34,735.80 and the S&P 500 was down 1.53 points, or 0.04%, at 4,357.16. The Nasdaq Composite was up 24.87 points, or 0.17%, at 14,656.83, boosted by Apple Inc, Amazon.com, Facebook Inc, Google-owner Alphabet Inc and Microsoft Corp.
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