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NEW YORK, Dec 18, 2008 (AFP) - US stocks rose in opening trade Thursday after a drop in weekly initial job claims suggesting the labor market was not as bad as feared.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 45.32 points (0.51 percent) to 8,869.66 on the opening bell and the tech-dominant Nasdaq was up 5.19 points (0.33 percent) to 1,584.50.
The Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index added 4.07 points (0.45 percent) to 908.49.
The market opened higher but in cautious trade after the Labor Department said the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the week to December 13 was 554,000, a decrease of 21,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 575,000.
"Initial jobless claims and continuing claims were roughly in line with the consensus estimate, and down a bit from the prior week," said analysts at Briefing.com.
"However, an improvement in the face of continuing job cut announcements may suggest some workers have exhausted their jobless benefits," the firm said.
Still, it pointed out, the claims numbers came as "relatively good news since they weren't as bad as feared."
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