The US markets ended mostly higher on Thursday after pulling back sharply over the course of the two previous sessions as the Labor Department released a report showing initial jobless claims fell to a new pandemic-era low in the week ended August 14th. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 348,000, a decrease of 29,000 from the previous week's revised level or 377,000. Street had expected jobless claims to edge down to 363,000 from the 375,000 originally reported for the previous week. Initial jobless claims decreased for the fourth consecutive week, falling to their lowest level since hitting 256,000 in the week ended March 14, 2020. However, the choppy trading on markets came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets after initial weakness dragged the major averages down to their lowest intraday levels in almost a month.
The initial move to the downside came as traders continued to digest the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting. The minutes indicated that most Fed officials currently expect economic conditions to warrant scaling back the central bank's asset purchase program before the end of the year. The Fed restarted its asset purchase program back in March of 2020 and is currently purchasing bonds at a pace of $120 billion per month. The asset purchase program has helped to prop up the markets throughout much of the coronavirus pandemic, with stocks reaching record highs even as the economy struggled.
Nasdaq rose 15.87 points or 0.11 percent to 14,541.79 and S&P 500 was up by 5.53 points or 0.13 percent to 4,405.8, while Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 66.57 points or 0.19 percent to 34,894.12.