US close: Stocks end session lower following jobless claims report

Wall Street stocks closed lower on Thursday as market participants digested this week's all-important jobless claims report from the Department of Labor.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.07% at 34,577.04, while the S&P 500 was 0.36% weaker at 4,192.85 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.03% softer at 13,614.51.

The Dow closed 23.34 points lower on Thursday, almost erasing modest gains recorded in the previous session as energy and "meme" stocks traded higher.

Thursday's primary focus was the Labor Department's jobless claims report, which showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended 29 May had dropped below 400,000 for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic started over twelve months ago. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted print of 385,000 - the lowest since mid-March 2020. Economists had forecast a reading of 390,000 applications.

On the macro front, planned job cuts among US employers rose to 24,586 in May from 22,913 a month earlier, according to data firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, meaning that so far in 2021, employers announced plans to cut 192,185 jobs from their payrolls, down 86% from the 1.41m wiped out during the same period in 2020.

Elsewhere, private payrolls increased by 978,000 jobs last month, according to ADP's national employment report on Thursday, marking the largest increase since June 2020, while data for April was revised down to show 654,000 jobs being added instead of the initially reported 742,000. Economists were expecting a print of 650,000.

Still on data, May's IHS Markit composite PMI came in at 70.4, up from 64.7 in April and above the flash estimate of 70.1.

Lastly, the ISM's non-manufacturing PMI hit its highest level on record in May, print at 64, up 1.3% month-on-month.

In the corporate space, shares in theatre chain AMC Entertainment closed lower as after filing to sell 11.0m shares and surging 95.59% in the previous session amid a resurgence in speculative trading.