US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow muted as virus cases rise, jobless claims weigh

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* Weekly jobless claims higher than expected
* Carnival Corp falls after warning of annual loss
* Spotify rises on signing podcast deal with Warner Bros
* Indexes: Dow flat, S&P up 0.16%, Nasdaq rises 0.47%

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By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
June 18 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow were largely
unchanged on Thursday as investors stayed on the sidelines amid
an uptick in coronavirus infections in parts of the United
States and an elevated level of weekly jobless claims.
Several U.S. states including Texas, Florida and Oklahoma
reported a surge in new infections. However, President Donald
Trump said late on Wednesday the United States would not close
businesses again. The Labor Department's report showed weekly jobless claims
declining for the eleventh straight week, but the pace of
declines has slowed as tepid demand and fractured supply chains
have sparked a second wave of layoffs. "Investors desperately want to be optimistic, but we're not
out of the woods yet," said Katerina Simonetti, senior portfolio
manager, UBS Private Wealth Management in Philadelphia.
"This market seems to be all about the short term - a lot of
volatility, lots of fluctuations and extremely dependent on a
number of (COVID-19) cases."
A spike in coronavirus infections have threatened to upend
bets of a swift economic recovery. The S&P 500 .SPX is now 8%
below its February all-time high after coming within 5% of that
level last week.
"When we look at valuations market is definitely ahead of
itself, not only for this year but possibly even for next year,"
Simonetti said.
At 11:18 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 2.98 points, or 0.01%, at 26,116.63, the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 5.01 points, or 0.16%, at 3,118.50. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 46.74 points, or 0.47%, at 9,957.27.
Technology .SPLRCT was the biggest boost to the benchmark
index. Real estate .SPLRCR and utilities .SPLRCU posted the
steepest percentage declines.
Biogen Inc BIIB.O dropped 5.2% after a U.S. district court
ruled in favor of generic drugmaker Mylan NV MYL.O in a patent
dispute over drugmaker's blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug
Tecfidera. Mylan NV MYL.O rose 4.3%. Spotify Technology SA SPOT.N jumped 10% after signing a
podcast deal with AT&T Inc's T.N Warner Bros and DC
entertainment featuring popular DC comics characters.
Carnival Corp CCL.N slipped 1.2% after reporting a
quarterly net loss of $4.4 billion and warning of a loss for the
rest of the year as the pandemic brought its cruise business to
an effective standstill. Advancing issues nearly matched decliners on the NYSE and
outperformed decliners by a 1.43-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded four new 52-week highs and no new
low, while the Nasdaq recorded 62 new highs and two new lows.