NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Thursday, after four straight days of gains sent the S&P 500 to a fresh record high, as economic data was not enough to entice investors to push equities higher.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 312,000, slightly below the 314,000 forecast.
The benchmark S&P index is up 1.4 percent over the past four sessions. It notched its biggest advance in nearly a month on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve hinted at a slightly faster pace of interest-rate increases starting next year, but suggested rates in the long run would be lower than it had indicated previously.
"Data is pretty good but it's one of those things we have been stuck in for a while, the data is going to continue to muddle along," said Keith Bliss, senior vice-president at Cuttone & Co in New York.
"Economic data is not going to be the catalyst or driver to keep this market rallying to stratospheric heights because we know it's going to be mediocre."
Factory activity in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region grew at a faster pace than expected in June, as the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said its business activity index jumped to 17.8 from 15.4 in May, above the forecast for a reading of 14.
In addition, the private-sector Conference Board said on Thursday its Leading Economic Index rose 0.5 percent last month after a downwardly revised 0.3 percent increase in April, but slightly below the 0.6 percent estimate.
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The Dow Jones industrial average fell 5.76 points or 0.03 percent, to 16,900.86, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.89 points or 0.05 percent, to 1,956.09 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 6.53 points or 0.15 percent, to 4,356.30.
U.S.-listed shares of BlackBerry BBRY.O jumped 13.5 percent to $9.41 after the company's first-quarter loss was smaller than expected.
Kroger Co, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its forecasts for full-year adjusted profit and same-store sales growth, helped by its acquisition of grocer Harris Teeter earlier this year. Shares of the biggest U.S. supermarket operator rose 5.2 percent to $49.71 as the best performer on the S&P 500.
Measurement Specialties Inc MEAS.O climbed 10.4 percent to $86.11 after the company agreed to be acquired by Swiss-based electronics company TE Connectivity TEL.N for about $1.7 billion, including debt.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)