Stocks are shrugging off solid economic data

US stocks are down on Thursday as healthcare stocks slipped, but strong economic data tempers the fall.

At 10:36 a.m. ET, the Dow was down 86.28 points (-0.47%), the S&P 500 was down by 5.86 points (-0.27%) and the Nasdaq fell 23.08 points (-0.43%).

West Texas Intermediate crude oil climbed above $50 a barrel for the first time since June 24 on expectations of an production cut by OPEC in November.

Twitter stock plunged 19% on Thursday morning following reports that Google and Disney would not pursue a formal bid for the social network.

Meanwhile, shares of Deutsche bank continue to rally on news that the German government is pursuing talks with US authorities to help settle the bank's enormous fine.

Walmart is down almost 3% after predicting flat earnings next year.

Goldman Sachs downgraded Tesla Motors Inc. to "neutral" from a "buy" rating on early Thursday morning, sending shares down 2.8% to $202.60 in pre-market trading.

In economic data, initial jobless claims fell to 249,000 last week, below expectations of an increase to 256,000, according to the Department of Labor.

Treasuries are under early selling pressure as the labor market is the best positioned since the 1970s. US Treasurys fell, pushing the benchmark 10-year yield up 1.8 basis points to 1.05%.

The strong data has traders raising their expectations the Federal Reserve will lift its fed funds rate by the end of the year.