NEW YORK — The anxiety that rattled markets this week dissipated Thursday as China’s central bank calmed concerns that the country’s currency, the yuan, would continue its slide. Major markets in Europe and Asia made gains, while the U.S. stock market finished with a slight loss.
“I think the central bankers have given people a reason to believe they’re not that worried,” said Jason Pride, director of investment strategy at Glenmede, a money management firm. “That’s why we’re seeing some recovery today.”
The major U.S. stock indexes spent much of Thursday changing course. They fell in the morning, rose in the afternoon, then drifted lower in the final hour of trading.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 2.66 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 2,083.39.
The Dow Jones industrial gained 5.74 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 17,408.25, and the Nasdaq composite lost 10.83 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,033.56.
A handful of big companies turned in quarterly results. The department-store chain Kohl’s reported quarterly sales and earnings that fell short of analysts’ estimates. The news knocked its stock down $5.39, or 9 percent, to $56.11.
Cisco Systems surged after posting quarterly results that topped analysts’ expectations after the market closed Wednesday. The maker of computer networking equipment credited rising revenue from selling data-center servers and its collaboration with other businesses. Cisco’s stock gained 80 cents, or 3 percent, to $28.70, the biggest gain of any company in the Dow.
The price of oil slipped to another six-year low Thursday on continuing concerns about high global supplies. U.S. crude fell $1.07 to close at $42.23, its lowest close since March 3, 2009.
