Stocks finish with little change

Associated Press

NEW YORK

U.S. stocks ended pretty much where they started Thursday after spending the day cycling up and down. Investors bought safe picks such as phone companies and food makers after a surprisingly weak report on the job market.

Stocks started the day higher. Materials companies climbed after Monsanto, an agricultural giant, soared on reports it might be acquired. The market turned lower in late morning trading as investors worried about the Labor Department’s report, which showed an unexpected jump in the number of people seeking unemployment benefits. Oil wavered between gains and losses, but finished higher for the sixth time in seven days.

“The market is following oil,” said John Cannally, chief economic strategist for LPL Financial. Cannally thinks investors don’t have a lot of confidence in the global economy right now, and will be watching subsequent reports out of China to see if there are more signs that the world’s second-largest economy is continuing to slow down.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9.38 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 17,720.50. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dipped 0.35 points to 2,064.11. The Nasdaq composite index fell 23.36 points, or 0.5 percent, to 4,737.33.

The Labor Department said applications for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since February 2015. That comes after a disappointing jobs report for April.

The biggest gains went to phone companies, chemicals makers and consumer stocks. AT&T increased 37 cents to $39.55. Among consumer companies, Kraft Heinz rose $1.14, or 1.3 percent, to $86.34 and Coca-Cola added 37 cents to $45.83.

Monsanto led materials companies higher after Bloomberg News reported that German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer might make an offer for it. That follows a wave of consolidation in the chemicals industry: DuPont and Dow Chemical agreed to combine last year, and ChemChina agreed to buy Syngenta of Switzerland in March. Monsanto jumped $7.58, or 8.4 percent, to $97.92.