US open: Stocks start the day with a Ho-Ho-No

US stocks opened lower on Thursday, amid lower volumes and a shorter session due to Christmas Eve - though they were still heading for solid weekly gains.

The S&P 500 opened less than a point lower, down to 2,063. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1% at 17,591, though the Nasdaq Composite started the day up two points to 5,048.

Salesforce surprised the market, opening down 0.02% at $78.03 amid talks of a large acquisition. Miner Freeport-McRoRan reversed its earlier gains, and was down 1.48% to $7.34.

There was still no word from biotechnology firm KaloBios as to whether they would be appealing their delisting letter from Nasdaq. Shares in the company were suspended last week, at the same time its infamous chief executive Martin Shkreli was arrested and charged with securities fraud.

KaloBios had until Monday 28 December to appeal the delisting.

Initial jobless claim data came through an hour ahead of the markets opening. Forecasts had been for a lower figure of 270,000 for the week to 19 December - the actual figure was just even lower at 267,000.

Continuing claims - a measure of the total number of Americans claiming joblessness - also fell, to 2.195m.

Oil prices continued to edge higher following their increases in Asian and European trade ahead of the bell in New York. Wednesday's surprise announcement that US stockpiles were lower were clearly still having an effect as trading began.

Just after 1430 GMT, Brent was up 1.033% to $37.75 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate remained ahead of its London cousin, up 1.238% to $37.97.

Despite the pre-Christmas rises, oil was still on track to have lost 10% in December. Many traders were still maintaining caution, despite the stockpile news and globally higher prices in recent days.

"A one-week's drop in crude oil inventory is not a very positive thing for the markets, as fundamentally it is still oversupplied", said Admis trader Alex Poon.

"I don't think this will change the downtrend in crude oil prices."

In currencies, the dollar weakened still against the pound, to £0.6699. It also fell against the euro to €0.9129, and the yen - down to JPY 120.31.

Trading floors in New York were due to close early - at 1300 local time (1800 GMT) - due to the Christmas break on Friday.