* Weekly jobless claims fall from over two-year high
* Micron up 4% after signaling 2020 recovery
* Conagra jumps on strong quarterly results
* Futures: Dow up 0.05%, S&P off 0.09%, Nasdaq down 0.06%
(For a live blog on the U.S. stock market, click LIVE/ or
type LIVE/ in a news window.)
By Uday Sampath Kumar
Dec 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to open largely
unchanged on Thursday as investors shrugged off a dip in jobless
claims and looked past the impeachment of President Donald
Trump, who is unlikely to be removed from office.
On Wednesday, Trump became the third U.S. president to be
impeached, but the Republican-controlled Senate is widely
expected not to convict him. No U.S. president has been removed
from office in the country's 243-year history. "I was not paying attention to it. If it looked like the
Senate were going to vote him guilty, then it would be a
different story," said Robert Pavlik, chief investment
strategist at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York.
The S&P 500 snapped a record-setting rally on Wednesday,
after closing at all-time highs every day for four straight
sessions on a breakthrough in trade talks between Beijing and
Washington and hopes for a smoother Brexit.
The benchmark index has hit record highs for five
consecutive sessions, its longest streak since January 2018, as
the outlook on domestic growth remains largely optimistic.
Data on Thursday showed that the number of Americans filing
applications for unemployment benefits dropped from more than a
two-year high last week. But with no major update on the U.S.-China trade war or
economic policy decision expected in what's left of 2019,
analysts said the market had little incentive to move much from
current levels.
Trading volumes are also expected to taper off ahead of the
Christmas holidays.
"The market seems to be stalling out, unless people start to
use that as a reason to take some money off the table, which I
don't necessarily see happening," Pavlik said.
At 9:01 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 13 points, or
0.05%. S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down just 3 points, or 0.09%
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 5.25 points, or 0.06%.
In corporate earnings news, Conagra Brands Inc CAG.N rose
6.9% after the Slim Jim maker beat quarterly sales and profit
estimates. Micron Technology Inc MU.O gained 3.9% after signaling a
recovery in its business in 2020 and saying it had received
licenses to supply some products to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
HWT.UL .
Shares of Match Group MTCH.O , which owns the dating app
Tinder, rose 2.9% after the company's parent IAC IAC.O said it
would offload its entire stake.
S&P 500 Record highs https://tmsnrt.rs/2PBSBYC
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>