U.S. stocks little changed ahead of nonfarm job report

U.S. stocks closed nearly flat after a volatile session Thursday, as cautious investors were awaiting the closely-watched nonfarm payroll report for September due on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.66 points, or 0.02 percent, to 16,801.05. The S&P 500 edged up 0.01 point, or less than 0.01 percent, to 1,946.17. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 8. 11 points, or 0.18 percent, to 4,430.19.

The U.S. stock market fell in negative territory in the morning session as European stocks slumped across the board Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced plans to keep interest rates unchanged.

However, Wall Street regained momentum gradually in the afternoon session, as some investors chose to buy the dip, following in the steps of billionaire investor Warren Buffet who said that he bought a few stocks amid Wednesday's heavy selling.

"I like buying it as it goes down, and the more it goes down, the more I like to buy," Buffet told CNBC early Thursday, noting that what people really have to look at is where they expect the business to be over a long period of time.

On the economic front, the number of Americans initially applying for claims in the week ending Sept. 27 was 287,000, down 8,000 from the previous week's revised level, said the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

The figure, better than analysts' expectation of a modest rise, showed an improving labor market and also shed a light on the monthly employment report by the department.

Meanwhile, new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in August decreased more than expected, down 10.1 percent from the previous month, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday.

The U.S. stocks plunged on Wednesday, with all three major indices falling more than 1 percent, amid an array of mixed economic data.

The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear gauge, dropped 3.29 percent to end at 16.16 on Thursday.

In other markets, U.S. crude price rebounded Thursday after hitting the lowest level since April 2013. Light, sweet crude for November moved up 28 cents to settle at 91.01 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped slightly Thursday, with the most active gold contract for December delivery down 0.4 dollar, or 0.03 percent, to settle at 1,215.1 dollars per ounce.

The U.S. dollar declined against most major currencies Thursday and the euro gained against the greenback as the ECB launched a new asset purchase plan to stimulate the flagging economy in the eurozone.

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.2674 dollars from 1.2609 dollars in the previous session, while the dollar bought 108.41 Japanese yen, lower than 109.19 yen of the previous session.