U.S. stocks open higher as investors digest jobless claims, await Fed’s Powell

U.S. stocks opened modestly higher on Thursday morning after the latest jobless claims show the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits fell to a nine-month low of 198,000 last week, suggesting a strong job growth as the labor market remains resilient. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,

was rising 9 points, leaving it nearly flat, at 33,675, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.04%
was gaining 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.28%
was up 0.4%. Investors were also awaiting the remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for insights into the path of interest rates. Powell is scheduled to deliver comments at the Economic Club of New York, starting at noon. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury
TMUBMUSD10Y,
4.942%
was about to hit 5% on Thursday morning, advancing 5 basis points, at 4.954%, while the 30-year Treasury yield
TMUBMUSD30Y,
5.029%
was at 5.030%, according to FactSet data.