Stocks Flat, Weighed by Tech and Jobs

Stocks closed down slightly ahead of Friday's Labor Department report on unemployment.

Major indexes flattened out, ending with minor dips. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 25 at 9256. The Nasdaq was down 20 at 1973 and the S&P 500 slipped 6 to 997.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits came in at a lower-than-expected 550,000 in the week ending Aug. 1, down from 588,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Initial claims were expected to be 580,000.

Eyes now turn to the unemployment rate, which is scheduled to be released by the Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. Friday. Unemployment is expected to have climbed to 9.6% in July, up from 9.5% the previous month. Non-farm payrolls are expected to have continued their decline but at a slower rate than in June. Worse-than-expected private payroll data released by Automatic Data Processing Wednesday cast some doubt over economists' ability to accurately handicap the labor market this month.

In company news, Comcast (CMCSA) posted improved earnings, while Wednesday's diminished results from Cisco Systems (CSCO) weighed down the Nasdaq. 

European shares retained gains on expectations that the European Central Bank and the Bank of England will stand pat on interest rates at the conclusion of meetings Thursday. Asian markets closed mostly higher, helped by gains from China Mobile (CHL) and HSBC (HBC).

Oil prices smoothed out as economic concerns eased. As of 4:10 p.m. crude traded on the Nymex was flat $71.94 a barrel.