U.S. stocks ended mixed on Thursday midday. Initial claims for unemployment benefits last week, disappointing, but Spain and Italy, the news of a successful auction of Treasury market sentiment improved.
EST at 11:38 on January 13 (Beijing time at 00:38 on January 14), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6.62 points to 11,748.82 points, down 0.06%; the Nasdaq composite index rose 4.76 points to 2,742.09 points, or 0.17%; Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.69 points to 1,286.65 points, or 0.05%.
Merck (MRK) fell 6.2%, becoming the largest decline in the Dow stocks, after the company announced the end of the candidate's research and development of heart drugs vorapaxar. However, Merck will continue to study the drug in heart disease or heart attack than patients in the application.
Investors welcomed on Thursday a large number of economic data. The Labor Department reported that initial claims for unemployment benefits last week, surged 3.5 million to 44.5 million. A government official attributed the delay in the administrative report. In addition, the data show that in December producer price index rose 1.1%, the U.S. November trade deficit fell 0.3% to 38.3 billion U.S. dollars.
But some investors said this week's initial claims data may have been the impact of the recent storm.
Institutional investors Third Wave Global Investors chief investment officer Larry - Smith (Larry Smith) is expected in the future the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits may be in the 40 million people up and down. He said, "it shows a slight improvement in labor market conditions. However, if the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits continue to remain at current levels, then the bond market may be the end of the recent upward trend, the stock market will be hurt."