2/2/2012 4:26 PM ET
(RTTNews) - With traders seemingly reluctant to make any significant moves ahead of tomorrow's closely watched monthly jobs report, stocks turned in a lackluster performance throughout the trading day on Thursday, eventually ending the day mixed.
The major averages closed on opposite sides of the unchanged line, with the Dow posting a modest loss. While the Dow edged down 11.05 points or 0.1 percent to 12,705.41, the Nasdaq rose 11.41 points or 0.4 percent to 2,859.68 and the S&P 500 inched up 1.45 points or 0.1 percent to 1,325.54.
Despite the mixed performance on the day, the tech-heavy Nasdaq extended a recent upward move, reaching its best closing level in almost seven months.
The choppy trading came as traders looked ahead to Friday's monthly employment report from the Labor Department. Economists expect employment to increase by about 150,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 8.5 percent.
As a result of the focus on the monthly report, traders largely shrugged off the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims report, which showed that claims fell by more than anticipated in the week ended January 28th.
The report showed that jobless claims dipped to 367,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 379,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 370,000 from the 377,000 originally reported for the previous week.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed a slightly smaller than expected increase in labor productivity in the fourth quarter. At the same time, the report showed a bigger than expected increase in unit labor costs.
Traders were also presented with remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who told the House Budget Committee that the U.S. economy is on the mend but is not yet ready to stand on its own two feet without help from the Fed.
"Over the past two and a half years, the U.S. economy has been gradually recovering from the recent deep recession," Bernanke said in prepared testimony.
He added, "While conditions have certainly improved over this period, the pace of the recovery has been frustratingly slow, particularly from the perspective of the millions of workers who remain unemployed or underemployed."
Among individual stocks, shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) rose by 2 percent after the wireless chip maker reported better than expected first quarter results. The company also issued healthy second quarter and full year guidance.
Allstate (ALL) also turned in a strong performance after the insurance company reported fourth quarter operating income that exceeded estimates, as catastrophe losses declined.
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