NEW YORK, May 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded in a range on Thursday, as oil prices pared earlier gains and Apple shares declines weighed the market.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 45.51 points, or 0.26 percent, to 17,665.61. The S&P 500 shed 7.18 points, or 0.35 percent, to
2,057.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 39.46 points, or 0.83 percent, to
4,721.23.
Oil prices struggled for gains Thursday after U.S. crude oil topped 47 U.S. dollars a barrel before the opening bell.
Shares of Apple dropped over 2 percent in the morning session, and all three major indexes turned lower with tech lagging.
On the economic front, in the week ending May 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 294,000, an increase of 20,000 from the
previous week's unrevised level of 274,000, the U.S. Labor Department said
Thursday. This is the highest level for initial claims since Feb. 28, 2015 when
it was 310,000.
Meanwhile, investors also kept a close eye on some U.S. Federal Reserve voting members scheduled to speak later Thursday for clues on the future path of
interest rate hike by the central bank.
U.S. stocks pulled back Wednesday as Wall Street assessed a batch of disappointing corporate earnings reports.
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After military success, UAVs turn to development, environment projects
China's success in producing and exporting unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for military use is prompting the industry to explore new civilian uses, which
will help develop the domestic economy and tap overseas market, experts said.
"Our products are very popular in the Belt and Road countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and so on," Shi Wen, general designer
of the Rainbow UAV series (CH series), told the Global Times.
Produced by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the CH series is its most popular drone product.
Shi declined to identify the buyers, citing business confidentiality.
However, according to official sources from other countries, Rainbow at least has 19 buyers around the world, including Egypt, Myanmar, Iraq, Pakistan,
Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. Since 2015, the Iraqi defense ministry's YouTube
channel has posted a number of videos about the use of the CH-4B, a military
drone of the Rainbow series. These clips show how effective the drones are in
real combat situations, such as destroying moving armed vehicles or buildings
used by armed terrorists as hideouts.
The fast development of China's UAVs relies on development in areas like aircraft engines, satellite navigation (Beidousystem) and micro electronics,
Song Zhongping, a Hong Kong-based military expert told the Global Times.
Chinese drones have not had the same poor publicity as US military drones. Shi said Rainbow series drones "have destroyed more than 300 targets in combat
in these regions, and the strike rate is 99 percent, which is remarkable."
But Chinese companies are also exploring other markets where drones can make a big impact on development, which will help improve the image of the
technology, as most people only know about military drones, experts said.
"Since China has very complicated conditions, if our UAVs work well here, we can use this experience to help other countries as well. And this is much more
meaningful than military uses," Song stressed.
Zhou Nai'en, associate director of CASC's design department at its research institute, said that drones can be used for forest protection, exploration of
underground resources, and for ocean monitoring.
"For instance, China's territory is vas.
