Pre-holiday Wall St trade mixed

US stocks opened mixed today after a series of economic reports led by better-than-expected data on jobless claims failed to provide a major catalyst ahead of the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

US stocks opened mixed today after a series of economic reports led by better-than-expected data on jobless claims failed to provide a major catalyst ahead of the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6.04 points (0.06 per cent) to 10,427.67 in the first exchanges after modest losses a day earlier.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 2.31 points (0.11 per cent) to 2171.49 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped a fractional 0.42 point (0.04 per cent) to 1105.23.

Market action came after a series of economic reports that sent conflicting signals to traders.
One report showed initial claims for US jobless insurance benefits plunged to their lowest levels since September last year.

The adjusted number of new unemployment claims in the week ending November 21 decreased by 35,000 to 466,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 501,000.

Other data showed US incomes rose 0.2 per cent and consumer spending jumped 0.7 per cent in October, helped by a rebound in auto sales. A third report showed orders for durable manufactured goods fell 0.6 per cent in October.

"Both the personal income and spending, and initial claims, reports produced positive surprises," said Patric O'Hare at Briefing.com.

"The durable orders data was disappointing, but a sizable upward revision to the prior month neutralised the weak October reading."

Scott Marcouiller at Wells Fargo Advisers said the market needs to pause after a series of powerful rallies that have pushed up the broad indexes by some 60 per cent since March.

"For several months we had predicted a pause-to-refresh, which we had, that would lead into a higher market by year-end," he said.