Wall Street’s main indexes were mostly flat on Thursday after recording all-time closing highs in the previous session, though the Nasdaq inched up to an intraday record high ahead of employment data later this week.
Markets are focused on the crucial monthly jobs report, which is scheduled for release on Friday.
On the day, data showed the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits increased moderately last week, suggesting that the labor market continued to cool.
“Sentiment is obviously a little restrained. The question remains if the Fed is going to be able to follow through with a series of rate cuts given that we’ve seen a bounce in inflation and hiring data, et cetera, all improving to a certain extent,” said Michael Green, portfolio manager and chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management.
At 9:41 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 60.71 points, or 0.13%, to 44,953.33, the S&P 500 lost 2.20 points, or 0.04%, to 6,084.29 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 10.66 points, or 0.05%, to 19,745.78.
Most megacap and growth stocks were marginally higher. However, Tesla outperformed with a 2.5% gain after at least two brokerages lifted their price target on the electric vehicle maker’s stock.
Cryptocurrency- and blockchain-related stocks jumped after bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, stormed above the $100,000 mark for the first time.
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Exchange operator Coinbase Global rose 4.4%, miner MARA Holdings added 6.1% and MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, advanced 8%.
The S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow clocked record closing highs on Wednesday as technology shares rallied after upbeat results from companies including Salesforce and Marvell Technology.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appeared to signal support for a slower pace of interest-rate cuts ahead when he spoke on Wednesday, saying the economy was stronger at this point than the central bank had expected in September. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said there was “no sense of urgency” on reducing borrowing costs further.
Comments from Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin are due later in the day.
Southwest Airlines gained 4.5% as the carrier raised its forecast for fourth-quarter revenue per available seat miles, while American Airlines added 10.6% after lifting its fourth-quarter adjusted earnings forecast.
Gains in the airlines pushed the Dow Jones Transport Average Index 0.4% higher.
SentinelOne dropped 9% after the cybersecurity firm missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit.
Synopsys fell 6.6% after the chip design software firm forecast fiscal 2025 revenue below Wall Street expectations, in part due to a slump in China sales.
Ford was off 2.5% after Wolfe Research downgraded the automaker’s stock to “underperform” from “peer perform”.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.06-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.15-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and one new low, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 68 new highs and 31 new lows.
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