Soaring Jobless Claims Leave Stocks Flat

Jobless claims rose to a 7-year high last week, but that didn’t appear to move the needle for stocks, which barely budged at today's open. The Dow crept up 66 points, while the S&P and Nasdaq rose 0.9% and 0.4% respectively. A staggering 32,000 filed new jobless claims last week, to a seasonally adjusted 516,000, a much bleaker number than analysts anticipated.

Wal-Mart, meanwhile, reported better-than-expected earnings but cut its annual estimate slightly, while Intel cut a billion dollars from its sales forecast. There was more dire news overseas, as Germany officially fell into recession with its second straight quarter of GDP contraction, and Chinese industrial production growth slowed to 8.2% in October. The Nikkei fell 5.3%, while the UK’s FTSE fell 1.8%. (More jobless claims stories.)