US stocks barely budged on Thursday as investors looked past disappointing jobless claims while a jump in Marathon Oil's shares boosted the oil sector. Shares of Merck, however, weighed on the market after disappointing drug news pulled the Dow and S&P 500 lower.
Weekly initial claims for unemployment benefits rose the most in six months, the Labour Department said, suggesting the jobs market still faces headwinds. Marathon was the biggest gainer on the benchmark S&P index and the NYSE ARCA Oil index, which rose 0.7 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average edged down 19.60 points, or 0.17 percent, to 11,735.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.23 point, or 0.02 percent, to 1,285.73. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 2.53 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,739.86. Merck & Co fell 6.7 percent to $34.65 after it said it would pull a blood clot drug from one study and not give it to some patients in a late-stage trial.
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