The World Blog by humble servant.

  Stocks close mostly lower but pare losses 18-Feb-21 16:20 ET Dow -119.68 at 31493.34, Nasdaq -100.14 at 13865.38, S&P -17.36 at 3913.97 [BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 declined 0.4% on Thursday, although it was down as much as 1.2% in the morning. The Nasdaq Composite (-0.7%) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.4%) also closed well off session lows, while the Russell 2000 (-1.7%) struggled throughout the session.  The weak start was attributed primarily to profit-taking interest despite a downtick in long-term interest rates and the latest weekly jobless claims data supporting the case for additional fiscal stimulus. The 10-yr yield decreased one basis point to 1.29%; weekly initial claims increased by 13,000 to 861,000 (Briefing.com consensus 775,000). Losses were relatively widespread with nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors closing lower, but investors did appear to buy the dip in many areas of the market. The information technology sector, for example, declined 0.5% a...