Wall Street opens mostly in the red following jump in jobless claims

The main indices on Wall Street got off to a mostly lower start on Thursday after US jobless claims disappointed traders. Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.04% at 33,029, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.47% to 3,955 and the Nasdaq fell 1.14% to 13,371. The mostly slower start followed data that showed 770,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, up 45,000 from the previous week's figure of 725,000 (itself revised up by 12,000) and worse than market expectations of a fall to 700,000. The unexpected rise in joblessness indicates that the US labour market is still straining in the fallout of the pandemic, although many will be hoping new stimulus measures and vaccinations will get the economy back on track in the coming months. 7:50am: Wall Street to head in both directions On Wall Street, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 hit record highs in the wake of Wednesday's Federal Reserve comments. But a subsequent rise in US Treasury yields to the highest since January last year has left things a little more up in the air, and US markets are heading for a mixed start. The Dow is forecast to open around 18 points higher at 33,033 and the S&P 20 points lower at 3954. The Nasdaq Composite, which missed out on the records, is set to fall 167 points to 13,358. Before the open come US weekly jobless claims, which are expected to show a fall from the previous figure. Dave Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "The US jobless claims reading at 12.30pm (UK time) is predicted to fall from 712,000 to 700,000. The report will be closely watched because there hasn’t been a reading below the 700,000 mark since March 2020." After the bell come third-quarter results from FedEx, whose second-quarter figures in December showed a strong performance thanks to the growth of e-commerce during the pandemic. Four things to watch for on Thursday: Big names in the earnings diary on Thursday will include sportswear retailer Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), consulting group Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) and delivery services group FedEx Corp (NYSE:FDX) Electric truck maker Nikola Corp (NASDAQ:NKLA) could also be in focus after one of its major partners, South Korean conglomerate Hanwha, decided to sell half of its stake in the firm Following the Fed yesterday, traders will be looking across the Atlantic for the latest interest rate decision and commentary from the Bank of England Meanwhile, other macro news in the diary includes the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for March as well as US jobless claims data for last week