Wall Street's main indices opened lower on Thursday as the the number of US citizens filing for unemployment benefits went up for the first time in four months, trading data showed.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 49.87, or 0.18% at the opening bell. The S&P 500 was down 4.38, or 0.13%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 16.62, or 0.16%.
The main indices fell amid a slowdown in the labour market.
Some 1.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the first time last week, the US Labour Department said on Thursday.
This comes amid a new wave of coronavirus infections that continue to overwhelm the world’s largest economy that just emerged from lockdowns two months ago.
The United States remains the leader in the number of coronavirus infections, counting 3,972,162 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University's latest data posted at 4:35 pm (UTC).