NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed mostly unchanged on Thursday, as an earlier rally in oil prices faded and investors waited for the release of a closely watched jobs report on Friday.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9.45 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 17,660.71. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.49 of a point, less than 0.1 percent, to 2,050.63 and the Nasdaq composite lost 8....