U.S. stocks opened higher after fresh data showed weekly jobless claims rose but remained near a pandemic-era low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7% soon after the opening bell, while the S&P 500 gained 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.3%, according to FactSet data, at last check. The Department of Labor said Thursday that initial jobless claims rose 13,000 in the week ending Feb. 4 to 196,000. That’s slightly above the 190,000 of new claims forecast by economists polled by the Wall Street Journal. The Federal Reserve has been trying to cool the economy through higher interest rates to bring down inflation. Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note was down about 6 basis points at around 3.58%, according to FactSet data, at last check.
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