File photo: AFP

Wall Street stocks opened mostly higher Thursday even as fresh economic data showed another spike in unemployment and a big drop in homebuilding.

About five minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 23,462.36, down 0.2 percent.

The broad-based S&P 500 advanced 0.5 percent to 2,796.53, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.0 percent to 23,462.36.