Thursday's early trade: S&P, Dow on track to snap three-day losing streak

The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were on track to snap a three-day losing streak on Thursday, as bank stocks climbed amid signs of strength in the labour market and a near-certain interest rate hike. The S&P financial index rose 0.6 percent as investors turned their attention to a crucial nonfarm payrolls report on Friday that would bolster already sky-high odds of a rate hike during the Federal Reserve's meeting on March 14-15.
Fueling the rise in the bank stocks was a Labour Department report on Thursday that showed the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose to 243,000 last week, but remained below 300,000 for the 105th week, pointing to a healthy labour market.
"The market is setting up for the two-part symphony we are going to see over the next four trading days, the first is tomorrow's jobs number and then the Fed meeting, which is the real big event," said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US LLP.
At 11:07 am ET (1607 GMT), the Dow was up 32.27 points, or 0.15 percent, at 20,888, the S&P 500 was up 3.41 points, or 0.14 percent, at 2,366.39 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 7.01 points, or 0.12 percent, at 5,844.57. Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with energy down 0.3 percent as oil prices slumped to their lowest level since late November.