US stocks were little changed on Thursday as a middling reading on jobless claims failed to dent expectations about Friday's US payrolls report for March as the quarter quietly draws to a close. The week has been marked by some of the year's lowest volumes as traders opt to ride the quarter's gainers, pushing the S&P 500 up 5.5 percent in the quarter.
But the benchmark S&P has been unable to hold gains around 1,330, a level that the index has been unable to break through despite several attempts in the past month. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 5.34 points, or 0.04 percent, to 12,355.95. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index inched up 0.18 of a point, or 0.01 percent, to 1,328.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 1.22 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,775.57.
Berkshire Hathaway's Class B shares fell 1.9 percent to $83.84 a day after the resignation of David Sokol, the man widely seen as the leading successor to Warren Buffett to run Berkshire. Sokol resigned after Buffett revealed that Sokol had bought shares in chemical company Lubrizol Corp before pushing Buffett to acquire it.