US open: Stocks mostly flat following jobless data

Wall Street stocks were mostly flat at the bell on Thursday as market participants digested the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic and this week's jobless data.

As of 1540 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.03% at 26,126.61, while the S&P was up 0.04% at 3,114.81 and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.20% firmer at 9,930.00.

The Dow opened 7.00 points higher on Thursday after having snapped a three-session winning streak the day before as market participants continued to watch the situation in the US with some concern.

Investors were still keeping track of headlines around the coronavirus on Thursday, with the likes of Arizona and Texas both reporting a huge spike in numbers of new confirmed cases a day earlier.

Thursday's main focus was this week's initial jobless claims report, which revealed joblessness in the US continued retreating last week, but only just.

According to the Department of Labor, initial unemployment claims fell by 58,000 over the week ending on 13 June to reach 1.508m (consensus: 1.3m).

The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out the variations in the data from one week to the next, fell by 234,500 to 1.774m.

News from across the pond that the Bank of England opted for a less aggressive stance than some market participants had been hoping for was also in focus.

Officials on the Monetary Policy Committee announced a £100bn increase in their bond-buying programme, but BoE chief economist, Andy Haldane, surprised markets by dissenting from the move.

Elsewhere in macro news, a key gauge of manufacturing sector conditions in the US mid-Atlantic region shot back higher in June, soundly beating economists' forecasts.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's factory sector index surged from May's level of -43.1 to 27.5, easily surpassing the median consensus forecast for an improvement to -27.4.

Lastly, the Conference Board Leading Economic Index for the US increased 2.8% in May to 99.8, an improvement on the last month's 6.1% decline and Match's 7.5% drop.

Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester will deliver a speech at 1715 BST.

No major corporate earnings were scheduled for release on Thursday.