US STOCKS-S&P 500 hovers near 5,000 mark with earnings, jobs data in focus
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Disney gains as board hikes dividend
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Spirit Airlines expects positive operating cash flow from Q2
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Jobless claims fall more than expected last week
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Indexes: Dow sheds 0.02%, S&P off 0.04%, Nasdaq up 0.16%
(Updates prices at 2:29 p.m. ET/ 1929 GMT)
By Sinéad Carew and Johann M Cherian
Feb 8 (Reuters) - The benchmark S&P 500 index edged lower on Thursday but remained close the 5,000-point milestone, as investors reacted to earnings reports, a roughly in-line jobs report and remarks from policymakers on interest rate cuts.
Under the hood, small-cap indexes were outperforming large caps and semiconductor stocks also outperformed with shares of chip designer ARM Holdings soaring more than 50%, powered by strong forecasts of demand for its technology to design chips for artificial-intelligence features.
Shares of Walt Disney jumped 12% after the media giant's profit beat Wall Street estimates and it announced a $3 billion share repurchase plan, a 50% dividend increase, a gaming investment and plans for an ESPN streaming service in 2025.
Spirit Airlines rose 1.9% as it expects to operate with a positive cash flow from the second quarter after reporting a narrower-than-expected loss.
More than half of the S&P 500 companies have reported quarterly earnings, with 80.6% surpassing expectations, compared with a long-term average of 67%, according to LSEG data.
On the economic data front, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly more than expected last week, suggesting underlying labor market strength.
"In what appears to be a sleepy day there are some things under the surface. There's more of a risk-on appetite. Semiconductors continue to show leadership," said Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services in Atlanta.
"We've had such outperformance in megacaps, investors are looking for other opportunities, even in technology they're going down the market cap scale," said Lerner, referring to a 1.7% gain in the S&P 600 tech sector compared with a gain of 0.2% for the S&P 500 tech sector.
At 2:29 p.m. EST the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 8.78 points, or 0.02%, to 38,668.58, the S&P 500 lost 1.91 points, or 0.04 %, to 4,993.15 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 25.57 points, or 0.16%, to 15,782.22.
In comparison the Russell 2000 small-cap index was up 1.4% while the Philadelphia semiconductor index rose 1.7%.
On Wednesday, the benchmark S&P 500 notched a fresh record high, inching closer to 5,000 points, as investors looked past uncertainty on the timing of interest rate cuts and jitters around the stability of some regional banks.
The S&P 500 energy index led major-sector gains with a rise of 0.8%, tracking a jump in crude prices.
Keeping risk appetite in check, however, New York Community Bancorp lost 5.8%, erasing some of the previous session's gains after the lender appointed a new executive chairman and said it could cut exposure to the troubled commercial real estate segment.
Meanwhile, Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said recent stronger-than-expected data on the U.S. economy may be partly due to the difficulty of making accurate seasonal adjustments around the beginning of the new year. PayPal dropped 11% after a forecast of flat growth in adjusted profit for the current year, helping to push the S&P 500 financial sector down 0.4%.
Ralph Lauren gained 17.6% following a third-quarter revenue beat, while apparel maker Under Armour climbed 1.3% after raising its annual profit forecast.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.4-to-1 ratio on the NYSE with 304 new highs and 60 new lows.
On the Nasdaq, 2,685 issues advanced and 1,480 declined with advancing issues outnumbering decliners by a 1.8-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 56 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows while the Nasdaq recorded 216 new highs and 98 new lows.
(Reporting by Sinéad Carew in New York, Johann M Cherian and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Matthew Lewis)