The Dow closed slightly higher on Thursday while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 closed lower in the second day of a so-called Santa Claus rally period.

According to the latest Labor Department data, weekly jobless claims fell to 219,000 compared with expectations of 223,000. However continuing claims pointed to a cooling labor market, jumping by 46,000 in the week ending Dec. 14 to 1.91 million, the highest level since November 2021.

The so-called Santa Claus rally could get off to a late start this year. But better late than never. A team of strategists at Ned Davis Research pointed out that stocks have struggled ahead of the start of the “Santa Claus rally” period, which begins on Tuesday.

Some of the biggest winners were mega-cap tech stocks, with Tesla up by 6% while Broadcom, Netflix, and Amazon each gained about 2%.

With December so far delivering Scrooge-like returns in an otherwise stellar year for U.S. stocks, investors hope the tail end of 2024 offers some holiday cheer, but warn of potential headwinds.The benchmark S&P 500 is up more than 23% for 2024,

Stock indexes drifted to a mixed finish on Wall Street Thursday, as some heavyweight technology and communications sector stocks offset gains elsewhere in the market. The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1% after spending the day wavering between small gains and losses.

Big Tech stocks were among the biggest weights on the market. Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, slipped 0.8%. Google parent Alphabet fell 0.

Markets are broadly lower before the opening bell in what’s expected to be thin holiday trading. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4% Thursday.