U.S. stocks open higher as jobless claims drop slightly
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E-mail Xinhua, February 11, 2021
NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks opened higher on Thursday as investors sifted through the nation's jobless claims numbers.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 49.56 points, or 0.16 percent, to 31,487.36. The S&P 500 added 13.50 points, or 0.35 percent, to 3,923.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 75.76 points, or 0.54 percent, to 14,048.29.
Nine of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors advanced in morning trading, with technology up more than 1 percent, outpacing the rest. Energy and real estate, however, struggled.
U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, came in at 793,000 in the week ending Feb. 6, a decrease of 19,000 from the previous week's revised level, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. The reading was worse than an estimate of 760,000 from economists polled by Dow Jones.
The four-week moving average was 823,000, a decrease of 33,500 from the previous week's revised average, showed the report.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. employment picture is still "very far from a strong labor market," while underscoring the importance of maintaining "a patiently accommodative monetary policy stance" to boost the labor market recovery amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem
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