Stocks moved modestly higher at the start of trading on Thursday, with the major averages edging above the unchanged line, adding to the slim gains posted in the previous session. Nonetheless, buying interest has remained subdued in early trading.
The initial strength came after the Labor Department released its report on first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended December 26th, showing that initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell for the week, once again falling to their lowest level in well over a year.
The report showed that jobless claims fell to 432,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 454,000. The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to edge up to 460,000 from the 452,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims extended the downward trend seen over the past few months, falling to their lowest level since coming at 413,000 in the week ended July 19th, 2008.
After trending lower in recent sessions, gold stocks are regaining some ground in early trading amid a notable increase by the price of the precious metal. While most of the other major sectors have also moved to the upside, considerable weakness has emerged among trucking stocks.
In the past few minutes, the major averages have edged down off their highs for the young session, with the Dow slipping below the unchanged line. The Dow is currently down 3.10 at 10,545.41, while the Nasdaq is up 0.68 at 2,291.96 and the S&P 500 is up 0.69 at 1,127.11.
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