U.S. stocks trim gains as banks, chipmakers slide

NEW YORK (Forex News Now) – U.S. stock markets on Thursday trimmed earlier gains made on the back of upbeat U.S. employment data, as financial shares and chipmakers slid.

In U.S. afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 59.3 points, or 0.59 percent, to 10,0778; the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained 4 points, or 0.38 percent, to 1,064 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.63 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,162.

Among stocks in focus, chipmaker Intel dropped 0.76 percent and Goldman Sachs Group fell 0.98 percent.

In one of the day’s major stock trading news events, U.S. Labor Department data showed earlier that the number of workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week fell by 21,000 to 454,000.

Global forex analysts had expected claims to drop to 460,000, two major financial news outlets reported.

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