- US stocks edged lower from record highs set on Wednesday as jobless claims fell for the third week in a row.
- Jobless claims declined to 375,000, representing a fresh post-pandemic low as Americans get back to work.
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US stocks edged lower on Thursday, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 hovering just below record highs as weekly jobless claims fell for a third week in a row.
Jobless claims declined to 375,000 last week, representing the lowest reading since the pandemic began more than 15 months ago. Continuing claims fell to 2.87 million, beating the consensus estimate of 2.9 million.
The encouraging jobless claims reading suggest the ongoing rise of the COVID-19 Delta variant isn't slowing down job gains yet, with Americans slowly getting back to work. The data comes following July's blockbuster jobs report, with the country gaining nearly 1 million jobs last month.
Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Thursday:
- S&P 500: 4,442.27, down 0.1%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 35,489.59, up 0.01% (7 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 14,714.85, down 0.3%
Shares of Palantir surged as much as 9% on Thursday after the data-analytics company reported second-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates.
A strong earnings report from Clover Health, backed by Chamath Palihapitiya, helped shares soar 19% as revenue forecasts topped estimates.
China signaled that its tech crackdown isn't ending anytime soon, and it called for tougher rules in other key industries.
Oil prices slid. West Texas Intermediate crude was down as much as 0.8%, to $68.68 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, fell 0.6%, to $70.99 per barrel, at intraday lows.
Gold fell as much as 0.6%, to $1,741.68 per ounce.