A report showing a pickup in worker layoffs helped to support the Wall Street benchmark.

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The number of workers applying for unemployment benefits rose by more last week than economists expected, though it remains relatively low compared with historic numbers.

That could be a sign the US economy can pull off a hoped-for balancing act of staying solid enough to avoid a recession, but not so strong that it puts upward pressure on inflation.

Treasury yields erased earlier gains after the report’s release, an indication of expectations for the US Federal Reserve to deliver long-sought cuts to interest rates later this year.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.45 per cent, from 4.5 per cent late Wednesday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, slipped to 4.81 per cent, from 4.84 per cent.

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Among individual stocks, Airbnb sank 6.9 per cent despite topping analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue.

However, the company gave a forecast range for revenue in the current quarter where the midpoint fell short of expectations. It said an earlier Easter pulled more of its business this year into the first quarter, from the second quarter.

Shares in Beyond Meat, the maker of plant-based meat substitutes, plunged 14.4 per cent after the company posted a much worse loss than analysts expected, as demand for its products continues to crater.