US open: Stocks head south as investors digest jobless claims data

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

As of 1535 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.34% at 34,481.57, while the S&P 500 was 0.62% weaker at 4,182.15 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.05% softer at 13,612.40.

The Dow opened 118.81 points lower on Thursday, erasing modest gains recorded in the previous session as energy and "meme" stocks traded higher.

Thursday's primary focus was likely to be 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 to come, May's IHS Markit composite PMI will be released at 1545 BST and last month's ISM non-manufacturing PMI was slated for released at 1500 BST.

In the corporate space, shares in theatre chain AMC Entertainment were down as much as 20% in early trading after filing to sell 11.0m shares and surging 95.59% in the previous session amid a resurgence in speculative trading.

Lululemon Athletica, Broadcom, Zumiez and Slack Technologies will all report earnings after the close.