Wall Street off to a mixed start as jobless claims unexpectedly rise

The main indices on Wall Street opened on a mixed note on Thursday following an unexpected rise in US jobless claims numbers.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.15% at 34,745 while the S&P 500 inched up 0.05% to 4,360 and the Nasdaq rose 0.25% to 14,668.

The uncertain start followed news that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose to 419,000 last week from 368,000 the previous week, upending analyst predictions of a drop to 350,000.

The increase keeps weekly claims near their level of two months ago, which means there has been little improvement despite signs of the job market recovering.

7:45am: Wall Street to open higher

Wall Street is set for a positive start, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average looking at a third day of gains.

The Dow is forecast to rise by 97 points or 0.27% at the open, while the S&P 500 is expected to climb 0.23% and the Nasdaq Composite is indicated 0.17% higher.

A generally positive reporting season seems to have persuaded investors to shrug off concerns about the Delta variant.

That has continued today to a degree, with AT&T shares up 1.4% in premarket after its results beat forecasts.

But Texas Instruments Inc (NYSE:TXN) is down 4.9%. It too did better than expected in the second quarter but its outlook for the third quarter missed analyst targets, amid a global chip shortage.

After the market closes, results from Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) are due.

Meanwhile, US weekly jobless claims are expected to show a dip from 360,000 to 350,000.

Four things to watch for on Thursday:

• Notable firms in the earnings diary today include computer processor maker Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC), healthcare firm Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) (NYSE:ABT) and medical device maker Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Corp (NYSE:DHR)
• Video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI) is likely to draw attention after it was hit with a lawsuit by the state of California over an alleged “frat boy culture” at the group as well as harassment and discrimination against women
• Meanwhile, shares in chemical firm Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) could also be in focus after the group swung into profit amid better than expected
• On the macro front, aside from US jobless claims there may be some interest in more home sales data

Story by ProactiveInvestors