Investing.com – Wall Street opened up slightly on Thursday, as a bigger-than-expected drop in jobless claims helped the market shrugged off the news that the U.S. economy grew less than thought in the fourth quarter.
The Dow gained 49 points or 0.2% by 9:53 AM ET (13:53 GMT) while the S&P 500 rose 1 point or 0.1% and tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was up 4 points or 0.1%.
Initial jobless claims fell to their lowest level in two months last week, offering some reassurance about the strength of the labor market despite February's weak employment report. The news did more to raise spirits than a downward revision to fourth-quarter gross domestic product did to damp them. Growth slowed to an annualized rate of 2.2% in the last three months of the year, well down from the 3,4% rate registered in the third quarter and also less than the 2.6% originally reported.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was among the top gainers, jumping 1.9%, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 0.3% and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was up 0.7%. Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) skyrocketed 13.6% its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and sales were better than expected due to strong holiday sales, while Accenture (NYSE:ACN) gained 4% after its earnings also beat estimates.
Elsewhere, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) slipped 0.6%, while Boeing (NYSE:BA) was down 0.3% and Reebonz (NASDAQ:RBZ) slumped 35.8%. Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC) fell 4.3% on news that it took a minority stake in a cannabis venture founded by actor Seth Rogen.
In commodities, gold futures declined 1.4% to $1,298.25 a troy ounce while crude oil fell 0.9% to $58.86 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, gained 0.5% to 96.795.
Trade talks with China also remain in focus, although incremental news on their progress has lost the ability to generate big market moves in recent days. U.S. officials have been optimistic about the talks, with Reuters citing one saying that China has made unprecedented proposals in regards to issues like forced technology transfers. China has not yet confirmed it has made such a proposal.
"It seems very unlikely that the trade issues would get resolved very quickly. They've indicated that they made progress so many times, it is a situation where investors want more concrete rather than just talk of progress," said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Jersey.
-Reuters contributed to this report.