Stocks were little changed on Thursday as the market’s rally this month loses steam amid disappointing U.S. unemployment data and rising coronavirus cases.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded just 16 points lower, or 0.1%. Earlier in the session, the Dow was down more than 100 points. The S&P 500 fell marginally and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.3%.

The Labor Department said that 742,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the week of Nov. 14, topping a Dow Jones estimate of 710,000.

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. coronavirus cases keeps rising, dampening the upbeat sentiment seen in the market earlier in November. A CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data found that the seven-day average of daily new U.S. coronavirus infections is now at 161,165, up 26% from last week. In total, more than 11.5 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed.

This recent uptick in Covid-19 …continued .
[Source: CNBC News]