Stocks inch up as jobless claims drop

Stock markets inched up in early trading on Thursday, building on gains earlier in the week and following a better-than-expected jobless claims report earlier in the morning.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened up 81 points, or 0.3 percent, and the S&P 500 was 15 points higher, or 0.4 percent.

Stocks have been increasing steadily after a frenzy of retail investors using apps such as Robinhood drove up prices for stocks such as GameStop the previous week. This week, GameStop’s value dropped dramatically, signaling an end to the frenzy that upended markets.

The uptick on Thursday follows a positive report that showed initial unemployment claims in the last week of January fell to 779,000. That figure, the lowest since November, remains higher than the worst week of the Great Recession, however.