NEW YORK: The S&P 500 was nearly flat on Thursday as investors weighed signs of progress in fiscal stimulus talks against data showing a surge in jobless claims, while energy stocks soared on a sharp jump in oil prices. The S&P energy index hit a six-month high as crude prices surged above $50 a barrel for the first time since early March. Oil companies Apache Corp, Occidental Petroleum Corp and Hess Corp jumped between 9.0% and 4.5%.

Investors also awaited Airbnb Inc's debut, with the home rental firm set to open more than double its initial public offering price of $68 apiece, making its $3.5 billion IPO the biggest by a US operating company in 2020.

At 12:09 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 70.74 points, or 0.24%, to 29,998.07, the S&P 500 lost 2.11 points, or 0.06%, to 3,670.71, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 59.57 points, or 0.48%, to 12,398.52.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq recovered after a steep sell-off in the previous session, supported by gains in Tesla Inc, Netflix Inc, Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc, all adding about 1% each. The Dow Jones transportation average, often seen as a barometer of economic health, dropped about 1.4%.