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S&P 500 Index Opens Modestly Higher After Two-Day Drop, Eyeing Powell

  • The major Wall Street indices are unchanged on Thursday.
  • Energy stocks post strong gains on rising crude oil prices.
  • Investors await FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at 17:05 GMT.

The main stock indices They suffered heavy losses in the previous two sessions, but opened modestly higher on Thursday and investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at 17:05 GMT.

At time of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3% on the day to 31,375, the S&P 500 Index was up 0.25% at 3,830, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.4% at 12,740.

Among the top 11 sectors in the S&P 500, the Energy Index is up more than 1% supported by a 2% rise in crude oil prices. On the other hand, the defensive utilities index is posting small losses after the opening bell.

Earlier in the day, US data showed that weekly Initial Unemployment Claims rose to 745,000, but were better than market expectations of 750,000. Additionally, Unit Labor Costs in the fourth quarter increased 4%. Powell will offer his comments on the state of the US economy at the Wall Street Journal jobs summit later in the session.

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