REUTERS - U.S. stocks were
lower in light trading on Thursday as a fall in Apple's shares weighed.
Apple (AAPL.O)
fell 0.8 percent to $116.38 after Nokia (NOKIA.HE)
said it had filed a number of lawsuits against the iPhone maker for patent
infringement. The stock was the biggest drag on all three major indexes.
The market showed
little reaction to data showing that the U.S. economy grew faster than
initially thought in the third quarter, notching up its best performance in two
years.
Gross domestic
product increased at a 3.5 percent annual rate instead of the previously
reported 3.2 percent pace, the Commerce Department said in its third GDP
estimate.
"With less
traders on their desks and most investors planning where to spend their New
Year's Eve, markets have clearly entered the holiday mood," said Hussein
Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM.
"We can barely
see any significant moves in equities, fixed income or even currency markets
today, suggesting that more consolidation is expected throughout the remaining
days of 2016."
U.S. stocks have
rallied since the Nov. 8 election, with the Dow up about 9 percent and the
S&P 6 percent as investors expect the economy to benefit from
President-elect Donald Trump's plans for deregulation and infrastructure
spending.
The Dow Jones
Industrial Average has been threatening to breach the historic 20,000 mark for
the last several days, but has failed to do so.
At 9:39 a.m. ET
(1439 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was
down 26.77 points, or 0.13 percent, at 19,915.19.
The S&P 500 .SPX was
down 5 points, or 0.22 percent, at 2,260.18.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was
down 14.37 points, or 0.26 percent, at 5,457.06.
Ten of the 11 major
S&P sectors were lower, with the consumer discretionary index's .SPLRCD
0.40 percent fall leading the decliners.
Other economic data
showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose to a
six-month high last week, but remained below a level that is associated with
labor market strength.
Initial claims for
state unemployment benefits increased 21,000 to 275,000 for the week ended Dec.
17.
Micron Technology
shares (MU.O)
jumped 11.6 percent to $22.97 after the chipmaker's profit forecast beat
expectations.
Red Hat (RHT.N)
fell 12.2 percent to $70.20 after the Linux OS distributor's quarterly revenue
fell below estimates.
Declining issues
outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,489 to 1,075. On the Nasdaq, 1,327
issues fell and 866 advanced.
The S&P 500
index showed five new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded
33 new highs and 21 new lows.
REUTERS
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