Stocks shake off an afternoon stumble to end modestly higher
The stock market recovered from an afternoon stumble and ended with modest gains Thursday, enough to mark more record highs for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 added 0.3% while the Nasdaq managed a gain of 0.1%. Small-company stocks far outpaced the rest of the market, a sign that investors are feeling encouraged about the prospects for the economy. The Russell 2000 rose 0.7%, more than twice the gain of the S&P 500, which tracks large companies. Energy stocks did particularly well as the price of oil rose 2%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 1.29%.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Stocks leveled off in afternoon trading Thursday after spending much of the day pushing higher.
The S&P 500 was up less than 0.1% as of 2:38 p.m. Eastern and was still hovering near the record high it set on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose, 43 points, or 0.1%, to 35,352 and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%.
Small-company stocks were doing better than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index rose 0.6%.
Health care companies made broad gains and energy stocks gained ground on a 2% jump in oil prices. Insurer Anthem rose 3.2% and Exxon Mobil rose 2.4%. Technology and communications stocks slipped offsetting gains from the rest of the market.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 340,000, a pandemic low and another sign that the job market is steadily rebounding from the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
It's a preview of what traders are waiting for on Friday, when they will get the August jobs report from the Labor Department. Economists are expecting that U.S. employers created 750,000 jobs last month, pushing the unemployment rate down to 5.2%.
That...