The US markets made a mixed closing in a short trading session on Thursday, while the Dow and S&P retreated from their last session rally, the Nasdaq managed a slightly positive closing on a light day of volume, as the markets closed earlier than usual and will remain closed for all of Christmas Day on Friday. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.
Traders largely shrugged off a Labor Department report showing that initial jobless claims fell by more than expected in the week ended December 19th. The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 267,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level of 272,000. Nonetheless, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average rose to 272,500, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week's revised average of 270,750.
The Dow Jones declined by 50.44 or 0.29 percent to 17,552.17, while the S&P 500 Composite index lost 3.30 or 0.16 percent to 2,060.99. On the hand the Nasdaq Composite index gained 2.56 points or 0.05 percent to 5,048.49.
Indian ADRs made mostly a positive close on Thursday, HDFC Bank was up by 0.16%, ICICI Bank was up by 0.04%, Tata Motors was up by 0.23%, Wipro was up 0.07% and Dr Reddy’s was up by 0.21%.