Stocks Opened Slightly Higher after Economic Data, Earnings

U.S. stocks opened slightly higher on Thursday following a round of U.S. economic data and corporate earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately rose 51.09 points, or 0.19%, to 27,053.07. The S&P 500 gained 13.41 points, or 0.45%, to 3,003.10. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 42.60 points, or 0.52%, to 8,166.78.

Oil futures fell Thursday, pressured after an industry trade group reported a large jump in U.S. inventories ahead of more closely watched government data. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery declined 39 cents, or 0.7%, to $52.97 a barrel, while December Brent was off 38 cents, or 0.6%, at $59.04 a barrel.

The number of unemployed workers who applied for jobless benefits in the second week of October rose slightly, but layoffs nationwide remained near a 50-year low and showed no sign of rising despite a slowdown in the U.S. economy. Initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, increased by 4,000 to 214,000 in the week of Oct. 6 to Oct. 12, the government said Thursday.

U.S. homebuilding tumbled from a more than a 12-year high in September, but single-family home construction rose for a fourth straight month, suggesting the housing market remains supported by lower mortgage rates even as the economy is slowing.Housing starts declined 9.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.256 million units last month, the Commerce Department said.

Morgan Stanley (MS) beat expectations on nearly every major metric. Equities sales and trading revenue was about flat over last year at $1.99 billion, while fixed income trading rose 21% to $1.43 billion. Net interest income rose 30% to $1.22 billion, topping expectations for just $969.8 million on this measure, according to Bloomberg estimates. Overall, firm net revenues of $10.03 billion represented the highest third quarter in the past 10 years.

Fitbit (FIT) is diving deeper into the health care space, announcing a new collaboration Thursday with the Bristol-Myers Squibb-Pfizer Alliance to assist users with the detection, diagnosis, and potential treatment of the heart condition atrial fibrillation.