US open: Stocks trade lower following Dow Jones' fresh record close

Wall Street stocks opened lower on Thursday after the Dow Jones closed at a fresh record in the previous session.

As of 1520 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.02% at 34,222.99, while the S&P 500 was 0.31% weaker at 4,154.71 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.77% softer at 13,477.18.

The Dow opened 7.35 points lower on Thursday, taking a small bite out of gains recorded on Wednesday as corporate earnings and comments from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen were both in focus.

On investors' minds on Thursday, weekly jobless claims dropped sharply in the week ended 1 May, with first-time claims hitting a new Covid-19-era low.

Initial claims came to 498,000 last week, according to the Labor Department, better than estimates for a reading of 527,000 and down from the previous week's print of 590,000, which was upwardly revised from the initially reported 553,000. On the other hand, continuing claims actually ticked higher, rising 37,000 to just below 3.7m, while the four-week moving average for claims edged down to 3.68m, the lowest since late March 2020.

Elsewhere on the macro front, labour market strength was reinforced by a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which showed job cuts announced by US employers had fallen 25% in April to 22,913, the lowest figure seen since June 2000.

Federal Reserve heads John Williams, Raphael Bostic, Loretta Master and Robert Kaplan will all deliver comments throughout the course of the day.

In the corporate space, PayPal shares traded slightly lower despite posting a 31% quarterly jump in revenues, leading tech stocks higher in the process, while Etsy slumped more than 13% after cautioning that sales would likely slow as the Covid-19 pandemic boost begins to fade away.

Anheuser-Busch reported first-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates and named North American head Michel Doukeris as its next chief executive, while Kellogg hiked its full-year sales forecast on the back of a 'strong' first-quarter performance.

Still to come, Dropbox, Expedia, Roku, Beyond Meat, Shake Shack and Square will all report earnings after the close.