NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks diverged in early trading on Thursday as investors eyed Treasury yields, and while fresh data signaled resilience in the US labor market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 0.1 percent to 33,596.10.
But the broad-based S&P 500 was nearly flat at 4,275.37, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.3 percent to 13,054.48.
This came as markets kept watch on Treasury bond yields, with the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note jumping earlier in the morning.
This figure is closely eyed as it is commonly used as a benchmark for other interest rates.
“Participants are waiting to see how things will unfold today for stocks and what role the Treasury market might play in the unfolding,” said Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
Early Thursday, government data also showed that initial jobless claims hovered at low levels.
US stocks rise as bond yields retreat
It is a sign that “while labor market conditions are cooling, the job market is still characterized by very few layoffs,” said economist Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics.
“The claims data don’t change our call for the (Federal Reserve) to keep rates steady before embarking on a very gradual pace of rate cuts in mid-2024,” she added in a note.
Meanwhile, a further update to US economic growth data for the second quarter showed the figure remained unchanged at 2.1 percent.
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