US stocks trade mixed ahead of Fed speech following tepid labor-market data

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  • US stocks were mixed on Thursday after weekly jobless claims barely beat economic forecasts.
  • Investors are awaiting a speech from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell at the Wall Street Journals’ Job Summit this afternoon.
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US stocks were mixed on Thursday as investors continue to grapple with a spike in interest rates and weakness in the high-growth technology sector.

Weekly jobless claims of 745,000 represented a slight increase from the prior week’s revised 736,000 total and just barely beat economic forecasts for 750,000 claims.

Investors will likely be looking for any clues on how the Fed is thinking about the recent rise in interest rates when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at the Wall Street Journals’ Job Summit this afternoon.

Here’s where US indexes stood after the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Thursday:

  • S&P 500: 3,818.36, down 0.04%
  • Dow Jones industrial average: 31,320.70, up 0.16% (50.61 points)
  • Nasdaq composite: 12,967.54, down 0.18%

Billionaire investor Ron Baron told CNBC on Thursday that despite his long-term bullishness on Tesla, he sold about 25% of his clients’ stake in the electric vehicle manufacturer after its position size became too concentrated.

The weakness in technology stocks hasn’t stopped Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest from buying the dip in high-flying stocks. According to Ark’s daily trading disclosures, the firm bought millions of shares of Palantir on Wednesday amid the decline.

Going public via SPAC has reportedly caught the interest of Walmart’s Flipkart. The Indian e-commerce giant is exploring the possibility of going public in the US via a SPAC.

Gabe Plotkin’s Melvin Capital, which was at the center of the GameStop short-squeeze earlier this year, recouped some of its losses and gained 22% in February.

Oil prices were higher. West Texas Intermediate crude jumped as much as 1.68%, to $62.30 per barrel. Brent crude, oil’s international benchmark, rose by 1.79%, to $65.23 per barrel.

Gold fell 0.23%, to $1,712 per ounce.

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