- US stocks were mixed Thursday as investors digested jobless claims data and economic forecasts.
- Weekly jobless claims fell to 310,000 last week, setting a fresh pandemic-era low.
- Altcoin Solana continued its surge, hitting a record high of $216 overnight.
- Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
US stocks were mixed on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones down for the third straight day and the Nasdaq posting a slight gain as investors digested data that showed fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits than economists forecasted.
Weekly jobless claims fell to 310,000 last week, setting a fresh pandemic-era low, according to Thursday data from the Labor Department. Economists expected claims to slide to 335,000. The print marked a second straight weekly decline.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Thursday:
- S&P 500: 4,512.39, down 0.04%
- Dow Jones industrial average: 35,022.82, down 0.02% (8.25 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 15,296.73, up 0.08%
The Federal Reserve said there's been a slight deceleration in economic activity from the moderate pace of recovery in early July through August in its Beige Book report on Wednesday. Wall Street is eagerly awaiting further signals from the central bank over its timeline for scaling back its pandemic-era stimulus measures.
Four Federal Reserve officials signaled on Wednesday that the central bank could start tapering its asset purchases later this year, despite a disappointing August jobs report.
Bitcoin traded around $47,000 Thursday morning after slipping near $44,000 in the early morning hours. The world's largest cryptocurrency is being outperformed by Solana, which hit an all-time high of $216.47 overnight. The altcoin is up over 420% in the last month.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.6% to $68.18 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark fell 1.25% to $71.68 per barrel.
Gold was steady around $1,795.
