NEW YORK: The S&P 500 index was little changed on Thursday as gains in heavyweight tech stocks offset gloom over downbeat data that underlined the Federal Reserve's view of a difficult road to recovery.

The number of Americans filing a new claim for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly back above the 1 million mark last week after slipping below that level for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq retreated from a record level a day earlier after minutes from the Fed's latest policy meeting highlighted that the labour market's swift rebound in May and June had likely slowed.

Despite signs that parts of the economy were still far away from pre-pandemic levels, the benchmark S&P 500 index completed its fastest recovery from a bear market this week, joining the Nasdaq in scaling new peaks.

At 11:19 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 50.89 points, or 0.18%, at 27,641.99 and the S&P 500 was down 2.79 points, or 0.08%, at 3,372.06. The Nasdaq Composite was up 37.72 points, or 0.34%, at 11,184.18.

Airline stocks took a hit, with the S&P 1500 airlines index dropping 1.1% after American Airlines Group Inc revealed plans to suspend flights to 15 US airports in October as travel demand remains low.

Nvidia Corp slipped 0.3% after disappointing results from the data center business overshadowed a better than expected quarterly sales forecast. Intel Corp rose 2% after announcing a $10 billion share buyback plan.