Stocks have shown a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Thursday, with the major averages bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line after closing mixed for four consecutive sessions.
Currently, the major averages are on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the Nasdaq is up 5.24 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 14,770.38, the Dow is down 117.81 points or 0.3 percent at 35,367.16 and the S&P 500 is down 3.99 points or 0.1 percent at 4,443.71.
The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders digest separate reports from the Labor Department on weekly jobless claims and producer price inflation.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims edged down to 375,000 in the week ended August 7th, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 387,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 375,000 from the 385,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department released a separate report showing U.S. producer prices increased more than expected in the month of July.
The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand surged up by 1.0 percent in July, matching the jump seen in the previous month. Economists had expected producer prices to climb by 0.6 percent.
With the bigger than expected monthly increase, the annual rate of growth in producer prices accelerated to 7.8 percent in July from 7.3 percent in June.
The year-over-year spike in producer prices reflected the largest advance since 12-month data were first calculated in November 2010.
Excluding prices for food, energy and trade services, core producer prices advanced by 0.9 percent in July after rising by 0.5 percent in June. Core prices were expected to show another 0.5 percent increase.
The annual rate of growth in core prices accelerated to 6.1 percent in July from 5.5 percent in June, showing the biggest increase since 12-month data were first calculated in August 2014.
Airline stocks have shown a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the NYSE Arca Airline Index down by 2.9 percent.
Significant weakness is also visible among gold stocks, as reflected by the 2.5 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index.
The sell-off by gold stocks comes amid a modest decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery slipping $5.30 to $1,748 an ounce.
Steel, oil service and computer hardware stocks are also seeing considerable weakness, while some strength is visible among software stocks.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index and China’s Shanghai Composite Index both edged down by 0.2 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell by 0.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets are turning in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index has fallen by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.5 percent and the German DAX Index is up by 0.8 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have climbed off their worst levels of the day but continue to see modest weakness. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.7 basis points at 1.356 percent.
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