Stocks Turning In A Lackluster Performance In Early Trading - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - With traders seemingly reluctant to make any significant moves, stocks are showing a lack of direction in early trading on Thursday. The major averages are lingering near the unchanged line after ending the previous session firmly in the red.

Currently, the major averages are posting modest losses. The Dow is down 18.50 points or 0.1 percent at 16,786.21, the Nasdaq is down 3.66 points or 0.1 percent at 4,418.42 and the S&P 500 is down 0.41 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 1,945.75.

The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders are largely staying on sidelines ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Economists expect the report to show an increase of about 215,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate is expected to come in unchanged at 6.1 percent.

Generating some optimism about the jobs report, the Labor Department released a separate report this morning showing an unexpected drop in initial jobless claims in the week ended September 27th.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 287,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week's revised level of 295,000.

The pullback came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to climb to 297,000 from the 293,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The report has also added to recent concerns about the outlook for monetary policy, however, with the Federal Reserve due to wrap up its asset purchase program later this month.

While most of the major sectors are showing only modest moves in early trading, considerable weakness is visible among energy stocks. The weakness in the sector comes as crude oil for November delivery is falling $0.56 to $90.17 a barrel.

On the other hand, airline stocks have shown a strong move to the upside, regaining some ground after yesterday's sell-off. The NYSE Arca Airline Index is up by 1.4 percent, bouncing off a five-month closing low.

Among individual stocks, shares of Tesla (TSLA) are turning in a strong performance after a tweet from the electric car maker's CEO Elon Musk suggested that the company plans to unveil a new model.

Social media giant Twitter (TWTR) has also moved notably higher on the day after JP Morgan upgraded its rating on the company's stock to Overweight from Neutral.

Meanwhile, shares of Constellation Brands (STZ) have come under pressure on the day after the beverage maker reported weaker than expected second quarter results.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region came under pressure on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index dove by 2.6 percent, while Australia's All Ordinaries Index slumped by 0.7 percent. The Hong Kong and Chinese markets remained closed for holidays.

The major European markets have also moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index has tumbled by 1.5 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index are down by 0.8 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

In the bond market, treasuries are giving back some ground after ending the previous session sharply higher. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 1.8 basis points at 2.421 percent.