Investing.com – Wall Street traded flat on Thursday, holding near record highs, as investors digested a slew of company news and mixed economic data.
At 11:05AM ET (15:05GMT), the Dow Jones dropped 17 points, or 0.08%, the S&P 500 inched up 1 point, or 0.04%, while the Nasdaq Composite edged forward 4 points, or 0.06%.
Home Depot (NYSE:HD) led losses on the Dow with shares sinking 4%. Experts blamed the slide on the announcement that Sears Holdings (NASDAQ:SHLD) had reached an agreement to sell home appliances on Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), one of the blue-chip home improvement retailers best categories.
The Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) were the next largest decliners have reporting quarterly earnings.
On the opposite side of the index, Nike (NYSE:NKE) saw shares jump 2% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the firm to overweight on expectations that sales growth will improve with new products.
Dow components Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Visa (NYSE:V) were scheduled to report after the market close.
On the economic front, weekly jobless claims rose less than expected, holding near 40-year lows, though the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey deteriorated much more than forecast.
Elsewhere, the euro rose to almost two-year highs against the U.S. dollar on Thursday after European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said the bank would discuss the next steps in its monetary stimulus program in the fall.
Also in monetary policy, the Bank of Japan kept monetary policy on hold overnight and pushed back the timeline for hitting its inflation target.
Meanwhile, oil prices continued to move higher on Thursday, supported by the larger than expected U.S. inventory draw in the previous session.
U.S. crude futures inched up 0.02% to $47.33 by 11:07AM ET (15:07GMT), while Brent oil gained 0.08% to $49.74.