US open: Stocks mostly down after Wednesday's OPEC gains

US equity markets were mostly down on Thursday, as investors digested the deal reached by OPEC members to cap oil production in a bid to push up prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.31% to 19,183.03 points, but the S&P 500 slipped 0.1% to 2,198.68 points, and the Nasdaq dipped 0.33% to 5,305.96 points at 1459 GMT.

Oil prices were in the green, but fell from the highs seen on Wednesday. The cartel agreed to slash production by 1.2m barrels a day to 32.5m for six months from January, with Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies taking the bulk of the reduction.

While non-OPEC members agreed to cut production by 600,000 barrels a day, including 300,000 from Russia.

Brent crude rose 2.7% to $53.32 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate gained 2.6% to $50.80 at 1454 GMT.

Shares in oil giants ExxonMobil were up 1.13% and Chevron crept higher by 2.11%.

“There are lots of pieces in the jigsaw that are yet to fall into place”, Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said.

“If OPEC members stick to the script and if non-OPEC comes up with the goods we might be on for further gains in crude. If not this rally could easily lose momentum and fade. Finally US shale is key and we can expect production to increase and the rig count to rise again as prices go up and costs come down.”

Gold on Comex ticked lower by 0.59% to 1,167 per troy ounce at 1526 GMT.

In currency markets, the dollar was nudged up 0.06% against the yen to 114.53, but was down 0.12% against the euro to 0.9433 and edged lower by 0.94% against sterling to 0.7921.

On the data front, initial jobless claims jumped during Thanksgiving festivities.

For the week ended 26 November, US unemployment claims climbed to 268,000 from 251,000. This was far above the consensus forecast of 253,000.

Meanwhile, Markit’s final US manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 54.1 in November from 53.4 the previous month, and had a flash reading of 53.9. This was the joint-highest level since March 2015.

The ISM’s headline manufacturing index rose to 53.2 from 51.9 the month before, beating expectations of a 52.2 reading and marking its highest level in five months.

In corporate news, Dollar General Corp shares dove 6.75% as the discount retailer reported an unexpected tumble in third quarter sales, due to a reduction in food stamps and low food prices.

For stores opened at least 13 months, sales dropped 0.1% compared to the 0.8% growth expected by analysts. Income fell 7% to £235.3m or 84 cents per share, compared to last year.

Shares plunged 19.61% in Express Inc as the fashion retailer cut its outlook due to an expected weak Christmas period, while quarterly same store sales fell 8%.

Revenue slid 7.4% to $506.1m, analysts had forecast a fall to $497.1m.