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US stocks held steady Thursday as trading resumed after the Christmas holiday and Wall Street digested one of the only significant economic data points of the week.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was little changed, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) declined slightly. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) erased early session losses to hover near the flatline.
Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC-USD) slumped, falling below the $96,000 level as volatile trading continued. Crypto-linked stocks like MicroStrategy (MSTR) tracked the declines.
Markets looked to be struggling in a bid to extend the start of the "Santa Claus rally," which kicked off with a bang on Tuesday. All three major indexes rose around 1%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite moved to within striking distance of their records after clawing back gains from a Fed-fueled dive last week.
As Wall Street saunters back from its holiday break, the normally routine release on weekly jobless claims took more of a spotlight than usual as the only piece of the jobs puzzle on the docket this week.
Labor Department data released prior to the market open showed weekly jobless claims fell to 219,000 compared with expectations of 223,000. However continuing claims pointed to a cooling labor market, jumping by 46,000 in the week ending Dec. 14 to 1.91 million, the highest level since November 2021.
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