Stocks – Wall Street Opens Lower on Sticky Jobless Claims; Dow Down 200 Points

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Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened lower on Thursday after the latest weekly data for U.S. jobless claims again underlined how long and arduous the road to economic recovery is likely to be. 

Initial jobless claims edged down only slightly to 1.51 million from an upwardly-revised 1.57 million the previous week, while continuing claims – which are reported with a one-week lag but which are considered a more accurate measure of labor market dynamics – stayed stuck above the 20 million mark, defying expectations that they would fall below it for the first time since April.

By 9:35 AM ET (1335 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 232 points or 0.9% at 25,887 points, while the S&P 500 was down 0.5% and the NASDAQ Composite was down 0.2%