US stocks trade higher after 4th straight pandemic-era low in weekly jobless claims

• US stocks traded higher on Thursday after jobless claims fell to a fresh pandemic-era low.
• Jobless claims fell to 406,000 last week, beating economist estimates of 425,000.
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US stocks traded higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average leading the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite higher.

The move came after weekly jobless claims fell to a fresh post-pandemic low, at 406,000. That was better than economist estimates of 425,000, and represented the fourth week in a row of falling jobless claims.

Continuing claims also sank to 3.64 million last week, also lower than economist estimates.

Here's where US indexes stood shortly at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Thursday:

• S&P 500: 4,200.49, up 0.11%
• Dow Jones industrial average: 34,461.88, up 0.40% (138.83 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 13,736.28, down 0.01%

Longtime bitcoin skeptic Carl Icahn has changed his tune on the cryptocurrency, saying that he may pour more than $1 billion into cryptocurrencies. But Icahn did predict many digital assets won't survive.

Another potential new participant in the cryptocurrency space is Apple, which posted a job ad for an "alternative payments" manager earlier this week.

But bitcoin is still heading for its biggest monthly drop since November of 2018, as the cryptocurrency rally that dominated the first few months of 2021 cools.

AMC Entertainment soared as much as 52% in Thursday trades, eclipsing its high reached amid a Reddit-fueled short squeeze earlier this year that was led by GameStop.

Big-oil giants have been losing their green energy battles with shareholders. Exxon has lost at least 2 board of directors seats to an activist investor that is focused on climate change, and Shell faced a recent court ruling that requires it to hasten its targeted emissions drop.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is struggling to find an acquisition target for its multi-billion dollar SPAC, and it may be hunting for a backup target.

Oil prices were higher. West Texas Intermediate crude jumped as much as 0.9%, to $$68.84 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, rose 0.8%, to $69.40 per barrel.

Gold fell as much as 0.1%, to $1,898.50 per ounce.