Wall Street closes mixed as oil loses 5 percent

NEW YORK (AA) – Wall Street closed mixed Thursday as oil prices fell about 5 percent, erasing most of the early gains in the stock market.

The Dow Jones fell 22 points to end the day at 17,895 and the S&P 500 was down 2 points to close at 2,097. But, the Nasdaq rose 17 points to finish the day at 4,876 after technology companies, including Western Digital and Viacom posted gains above 4 percent.

At the closing bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was trading at $45.19 a barrel with a 4.7 percent decrease, and international benchmark Brent crude was at $46.47 -- a 4.8 percent loss after U.S. weekly crude inventories fell less than expected.

Meanwhile, initial jobless claims came in at 254,000 last week, according to the Labor Department, beating forecasts of 270,000 and leading indexes to open higher.

The stock market will focus Friday on the unemployment report for June.