NEW YORK: Wall Street's main indexes swung between slight gains and losses on Thursday, as investors held out for more fiscal stimulus against the backdrop of economic data pointing to a slowing labour market recovery. The number of Americans filing for state unemployment benefits last week dropped more than expected to 787,000, but remained stubbornly high as support from fiscal stimulus faded.

Energy and financials rose 2.7% and 1.4%, the steepest percentage gainers among the major S&P sectors. At 12:39 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 13.58 points or 0.05% to 28,197.24, the S&P 500 lost 4.81 points, or 0.15% to 3,430.75 and the Nasdaq Composite index shed 67.46 points or 0.59% to 11,417.23.

Meanwhile, about a fifth of S&P 500 companies have reported third-quarter results of which 84.1% beat earnings estimates, according to IBES Refinitiv data. Tesla Inc climbed 1.5% after the electric-car maker reported its fifth consecutive quarterly profit on record revenue of $8.8 billion.

Among blue-chip companies, Coca-Cola Co gained 1% as it beat quarterly results expectations, while chemicals maker Dow Inc fell 0.8% even as it surpassed quarterly profit estimates.