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Stocks were finished at mixed results by the conclusion of trading on Thursday, with the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 and Dow Jones Industrials ending the day in the red, while the NASDAQ added a slight but undeniable tenth of one percent.

• Standard & Poor’s 500: -0.13 percent, 1,845.89 points
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.39 percent, 16,417.01 points
• NASDAQ: +0.09 percent, 4,218.69 points

Economic news for the day took the form of another report on the jobs market, with the Labor Department’s jobless claims count for the period ending January 11 edging slightly lower, and about 2,000 shy of analysts’ expectations.

On the S&P, it was a shockingly brutal day for Best Buy (BBY) . The brick-and-mortar retailer saw shares hemorrhage nearly 30 percent of their price by the closing bell after the company reported an awful holiday shopping season.

Financial stocks pared back the gains of the previous day, with Citigroup (C) down over 4 percent, and Bank of America (BAC) , Morgan Stanley (MS) , and JPMorgan (JPM) in tow. Aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. (AA) lead gainers, adding 4.25 percent by day’s end.

The Dow saw big losses for Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) and Goldman Sachs (GS) , both of whom saw shares off by at least 2 percent.

The NASDAQ exchange ended higher, but the sell-off still hit a number of tech shares, with Zynga (ZNGA) off by 12 percent, and Facebook (FB) , Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) , and Plug Power (PLUG) all closing substantially lower.

For more of Equities.com's coverage of daily trading action, be sure to peruse the following links:

Services: JC Penney to close 33 stores and slash 2,000 jobs.

Financials: Boston Private Financial ($BPHF) jumps on earnings statement.

Healthcare: Andrew Klips reports on recent developments in diabetes research.

OTC Markets: Joe Goldman explains why all the marijuana stocks are found on the OTC markets.

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