U.S. stocks traded mostly lower toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones index falling over 150 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded down 0.37% to 44,847.72 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01% to 19,736.69. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.05% to 6,083.58.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 0.8% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, materials shares fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims increased to 224,000 in the week ending Nov. 30, compared to 213,000 in the previous week, and higher than market estimates of 215,000.

Equities Trading UP
                       

Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $68.32 while gold traded down 0.5% at $2,663.10.

Silver traded down 0.6% to $31.71 on Thursday, while copper fell 0.2% to $4.1945.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.22%, Germany's DAX climbed 0.55% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.23%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 1.54%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.01%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 gaining 0.30%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.92%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.12% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 1%.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims increased to 224,000 in the week ending Nov. 30, compared to 213,000 in the previous week, and higher than market estimates of 215,000.
• U.S. trade deficit shrank to $73.8 billion in October versus a revised $83.8 billion gap in the previous month and compared to market estimates of a $75 billion gap.
• U.S. employers announced 57,727 job cuts for the month of November compared to 55,597 in October.

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