U.S. Stocks Turning In Another Mixed Performance

Add as your preferred news source on Google Add Now After ending the previous session on opposite sides of the unchanged line, the major U.S. stock indexes are turning in another mixed performance during trading on Thursday. While the Dow has moved back to the upside following yesterday's pullback, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has moved notably lower.Currently, the Nasdaq is well off its worst levels of the day but still down 148.06 points or 0.6 percent at 23,436.21.The S&P 500 is also down 4.34 points or 0.1 percent at 6,916.59, while the narrower Dow is up 179.84 points or 0.4 percent at 49,175.92.The mixed performance on Wall Street comes as traders seem reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.Economists currently expect employment to increase by 60,000 jobs in December after climbing by 64,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate is expected to edge down to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent.The jobs data could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting later this month.The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates at its January 27th-28th meeting but is seen as likely to cut rates by at least another quarter point in the coming months.Ahead of the monthly jobs report, a report released by the Labor Department this morning showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged up by slightly less than expected in the week ended January 3rd.The Labor Department said initial jobless claims crept up to 208,000, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week's revised level of 200,000.Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 210,000 from the 199,000 originally reported for the previous week.Sector NewsHousing stocks have shown a strong move back to the upside after falling sharply on Wednesday, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index surging by 2.7 percent.A sharp increase by the price of crude oil is also contributing to significant strength among oil service stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent jump by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index.On the other hand, semiconductor, computer hardware and networking stocks have shown significant moves to the downside, contributing to the drop by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.Other MarketsIn overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index tumbled by 1.6 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped by 1.2 percent.Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved slightly higher on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is just above the unchanged line.In the bond market, treasuries have moved back to the downside amid concerns about the national debt. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 3.7 basis points at 4.175 percent. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.comBusiness News