U.S. Stocks Turn Lower as Investors Await Friday's Jobs Report

By Liz Moyer

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks turned lower on Thursday as investors awaited the jobs report for July for hints about the direction of the economy.

At 10:51 AM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 83 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P 500 was up 0.2% and the NASDAQ Composite rose 0.3%.

New jobless claims inched up to 260,000, near a seven-month high, but investors were watching for Friday’s report on jobs for July to get a more complete picture of the labor market. Job openings fell below 11 million in June, according to data earlier this week.

The Bank of England, following the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, raised interest rates on Thursday. It hiked them 50 basis points, the biggest jump in 27 years, as the U.K. battles inflation.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), like other oil majors, reported a big jump in profit for the second quarter, boosted by high oil prices. Profit doubled and it raised its shareholder return plan to $15 billion. Shares rose 0.1%.

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) fell 1.9% after it missed expectations for the quarter and lowered its full-year forecast on lower prices for insulin and falling sales of its Covid treatment.

Oil fell. Crude Oil WTI Futures was down 1.8%, to $89 a barrel, while Brent Oil Futures crude was down 2.2%, to $94.59 a barrel. Gold Futures rose 1.3%, to $1800 an ounce.