Stocks Flat in Jittery Session as Trump News Continues to Dominate

New York (Feb 2)  Stocks traded flat Thursday as investors hit pause in trepidation over what unpredictable blow could next come from Washington.

The S&P 500 was down 0.02%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.03%, and the Nasdaq was unchanged.

The Trump White House kept markets on its toes on Thursday as it has for the past two weeks since Donald Trump has been in office. On Thursday morning, Trump threatened to pull federal funding from the University of California, Berkeley following protests on campus. Protests turned violent over a planned speech from Milo Yiannopoulos, an offensive alt-right commentator.

On Wednesday, the White House warned Iran that new sanctions could be levied against the country following a recent ballistic missile-test launch. Second, media reports on Wednesday suggested Trump could use military force in Mexico to prevent immigrants crossing the border. Separately, tensions reportedly rose between the U.S. and Australia after a testy phone call between the two leaders over a previous refugee deal under the Obama administration.

The Trump administration already has endured a rocky past few days. Protests erupted at airports over the weekend following Donald Trump's executive order to ban travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, a ruling that extended to lawful visa and green card holders. Then, a number of federal judges deemed the ruling unlawful. On Monday night, the president fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates for "refusing to enforce" the travel ban.

The number of new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 14,000 to 246,000 in the past week, according to the Department of Labor. Economists polled by FactSet expected a reading of 250,000. The less-volatile, four-week average rose by 2,250 to 248,000.

Source: TheStreet