Stocks Nearly Flat After Recovering From Early Weakness - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After coming under pressure early in the session, stocks have shown a significant recovery attempt in recent trading on Thursday. The major averages have climbed well off their lows of the session, with the S&P 500 climbing into positive territory.

Currently, the major averages are nearly flat on the day. While the S&P 500 is up 1.29 points or 0.1 percent at 2,161.02, the Nasdaq is Dow is down 9.79 points or 0.1 percent at 18,271.24 and the Nasdaq is down 4.28 points or 0.1 percent at 5,311.74.

The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders look ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Employment is expected to increase by 168,000 jobs in September after climbing by 151,000 jobs in August. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.9 percent.

Before the start of trading, the Labor Department released a report unexpectedly showing a modest drop in initial jobless claims in the week ended October 1st.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 249,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 254,000. The modest decline came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 256,000.

With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting a more than four decade low in mid-April.

Sector News

Despite the recovery attempt by the broader markets, significant weakness remains visible among biotechnology stocks. The NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index is down by 2.7 percent after hitting its lowest intraday level in a month.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY) has led the biotech sector lower after the biopharmaceutical company decided to discontinue development of revusiran to treat a genetic condition that can cause heart failure.

Gold stocks also continue to see notable weakness, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 2.5 percent. The index fell to its lowest intraday level in over four months but has regained some ground since then.

The weakness among gold stocks comes amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery sliding $11.70 to $1,256.90 an ounce.

Most of the other major sectors are showing only modest moves, contributing to the lackluster performance being turned in by the broader markets.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index climbed by 0.5 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index advanced by 0.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved lower on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both edged down by 0.2 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have climbed back near the unchanged line after seeing early weakness. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by less than a basis point at 1.720 percent.