Wall Street ended Thursday's volatile session on a mixed note as investors weighed steady high jobless claims data against the Federal Reserve's new framework to address interest rates and unemployment. Major benchmarks struggled to extend their gains, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones advancing, but the Nasdaq fell behind as tech stocks lagged.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell unveiled a new central bank policy on Thursday that would tolerate inflation to moderately rise above the Fed's target of 2%. This could keep interest rates lower for a longer period of time, a move the Fed hopes will keep the economy functional during a time of uncertainty.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department's unemployment claims data for the week ended August 22 was slightly above consensus at 1.006 million new claims. Continuing claims remained steady, coming in at 14.535 million for the week ended August 15. This is the second consecutive week of claims exceeding one million following a prior break in the pandemic's unemployment streak.

Here's how the market settled on Thursday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): +0.17% or +5.84 points to 3,484.57

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.57% or +160.15 points to 28,492.07

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -0.34% or -39.72 points to 11,625.34

For Major Stock News, big banks--Bank of America (BAC  ), Citigroup (C  ), Goldman Sachs (GS  ), JPMorgan (JPM  ), Morgan Stanley (MS  ) and Wells Fargo (WFC  )--all gained following the central bank's new policy on inflation and unemployment to keep interest rates low. Abbott Laboratories (ABT  ) received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for a cheap coronavirus antigen test that can produce results within 15 minutes, boosting travel trades: American Airlines (AAL  ), Carnival Cruise (CCL  ), Delta (DAL  ), Norwegian Cruise (NCLH  ), Royal Caribbean (RCL  ), Southwest (LUV  ), United Airlines (UAL  ). Microsoft (MSFT  ) and Walmart (WMT  ) confirmed that they are teaming up to bid on the social media video app TikTok.

For Sector Performance, most market industries ended the day in positive territory, with only Communication Services -1.29%, Consumer Discretionary -0.72% and Materials -0.24% lagging behind. The sector performance gains were as follows: Financials +1.74%, Real Estate +1.37%, Health Care +0.78%, Consumer Staples +0.61%, Industrials +0.33%, Utilities +0.30%, Energy +0.25% and Information Technology +0.03%.

For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP  ) ultimately gained on Thursday after initially falling after Powell's speech. The dollar index was up over 0.5% against other global currencies as investors bet on the greenback. Gold (GLD  ) prices slumped over 2% during Thursday's choppy trading, with spot gold falling 1.5% to $1,925.19 per ounce and futures settling down 1.4% at $1,924.60 per ounce. Crude oil prices also fell as Hurricane Laura met landfall in the Gulf of Mexico, impacting major U.S. oil producers. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) dropped 1.3% to $45.10 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) fell lower by 0.8% to settle at $43.04 per barrel.

For Friday, market participants will focus on fresh data on consumer sentiment and personal income.