Stocks are higher for a third straight day

Stocks are higher for a third straight day on Thursday though the move in US stocks is quite muted compared to the rally we saw the last two days.

Near 9:35 a.m. ET on Thursday, the Dow was up 48 points, the S&P 500 was up about 4 points, and the Nasdaq was up 12. Each of these moves was about 0.2%.

Thursday marks the final trading day of June and the second quarter, and so we'd expect volume on the market to be fairly heavy as investors square up their books for month- and quarter-end.

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In Europe, stocks are also little-changed with the FTSE in London up about 0.4%, the CAC in Paris up about 0.4%, and the Dax in Germany higher by just 0.1%.

Currency markets are also muted on Thursday morning with the pound down about 0.1% to around $1.34 against the dollar while the euro is also a bit weaker against the dollar at around $1.11.

The big economic data on Thursday morning was the weekly report on initial jobless claims, which showed initial filings for unemployment insurance totaled 268,000 last week, ever-so-slightly more than the 267,000 that was expected, but still showing the trend in claims remains broadly intact.

Elsewhere in news on Thursday morning, Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London and one of the faces of the 'Leave' movement ahead of the Brexit vote, said he would not run for leader of the Conservative Party.