Marc Pado Comments: Dow Closes With Small Gains
September 17, 2010, The Straits Times Online
The Dow index on Thursday pared early losses to close with slight gains after a choppy day marked by new data showing jobless claims dropped last week but still remained high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 22.10 points (0.21 per cent) to 10,594.83 in closing trades, while the tech-rich Nasdaq composite index gained 1.93 points (0.08 per cent) to 2,303.25.
However, the broader S&P 500 index lost 0.41 points (0.04 per cent) to reach 1,124.66 points, after dropping below 1,119 points at around noon.
"The fact that the market has been just resilient, unwilling to give back anything, is pretty impressive,' said Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Marc Pado.
Shortly before the opening bell, the Labour Department released figures showing the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell faster than expected last week, extending a four-week decline.
Claims for the week to Sept 11 fell to 450,000, down 3,000 from the previous week's revised figure, better than most economists' expectations of 460,000 new claims.
