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U.S. stocks open mixed after jobless claims report

Xinhua, May 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened mixed on Thursday after U.S. jobless claims data came out better than expected.

In the week ending May 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 265,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 262,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

The 4-week moving average was 279,500, a decrease of 4,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 283,750. This is the lowest level for this average since May 6, 2000 when it was 279,250.

In corporate news, shares of Alibaba soared 8.76 percent in Thursday' s early trading after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results. The Chinese e-commerce giant announced its revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015 was 2,811 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 45 percent year-over-year.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 32.19 points, or 0.18 percent, to 17,809.79. The S&P 500 lost 3.21 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,076.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 3.40 points, or 0.07 percent, to 4,923.05.

U.S. stocks retreated further on Wednesday following a sharp decline in the previous session, as U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen warned that the equity market valuations appeared "quite high". Endi