NEW YORK: Wall Street shares headed mostly lower in early trade on Thursday even as the US economy turned in a much stronger than expected performance in the third quarter.

It took an 8.2 percent surge in Visa shares, driven by its strong quarterly earnings report, to hold the Dow Jones Industrial Average in positive territory.

About an hour into trade, the Dow was up 93.55 points (0.55 percent) at 17,067.86.

Meanwhile the broad-based S&P 500 fell 1.24 (0.06 percent) to 1,981.06, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite lost 15.36 (0.34 percent) at 4,533.87.

The official first estimate of third-quarter US growth came in at a peppy 3.5 percent, more good news on the economy a day after the US Federal Reserve expressed greater optimism about the state of the jobs market.

Facebook continued its fall on expectations of slower growth as the company ramps up research spending; shares were off 2.6 percent.