US open: Stocks trade higher as tech stocks attempt rebound

Wall Street stocks traded higher early on Thursday amid a rebound in tech shares.

As of 1520 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.27% at 33,986.80, while the S&P 500 was 0.62% firmer at 4,141.30 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.20% stronger at 13,458.99.

The Dow opened 90.76 points higher on Thursday, taking a bite out of losses recorded in the prior session.

In focus early on Friday, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits came to a seasonally adjusted total of 444,000 last week, down from 478,000 in the prior week to the lowest seen since halfway through March 2020. Economists were expecting a reading of 450,000. However, the figure was still well above the 200,000 to 250,000 range viewed as indicative of a healthy labour market.

Tech stocks were also in focus again early on Thursday following a rollercoaster session yesterday after a sharp drop in bitcoin led to a sell-off in speculative corners of the market, with cryptocurrency-linked shares like Tesla, Coinbase and MicroStrategy leading the decline.

However, Coinbase regained some losses at the bell on Thursday, up 2.57% in early trading, after bitcoin recovered to roughly $40,000, a marked improvement from having almost hit $30,000 on Wednesday.

Elsewhere on the macro front, the Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing fell at a sharper than expected pace in May, dropping to 31.5 versus an expected print go 43 and last month's reading of 50.2.

Lastly, the Conference Board's leading index increased by 1.6% in April to 113.3, following a 1.3% increase in March and a 0.1% decline in February, with the index now having recovered fully from its Covid-19 contraction to surpass its previous peak, reached at the very onset of the global pandemic in January 2020.

In the corporate space, Kohl's shares tumbled despite the retailer posting a strong sales beat and hiking its full-year guidance, while Petco, also in the red early on Thursday, reported it had swung to a profit, leading the group to boost forecasts amid customer growth.