In US markets, the Dow was down 102 points or -0.41%, the broader S&P500 fell -0.78% while the NASDAQ lost -0.92%.
Stocks dropped on Thursday as Wall Street digested a strong rally this week along with the latest weekly jobless claims data and rising tensions between China and the U.S. Amazon shares slid 2.1% after hitting a record high earlier in the session. Netflix closed 2.6% lower while Alphabet and Apple dipped 0.2% and 0.8%, respectively.
The Labor Department reported Thursday another 2.4 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week. Thursday’s report brings the total number of filings during the pandemic to more than 38 million. The number of continuing claims was at 25.07 million, its highest level on record.
Rising tensions between China and the U.S. tempered market sentiment on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill that could ban Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Baidu from listing on U.S. exchanges. That measure was passed after President Donald Trump said in a tweet that the “incompetence of China” caused “this mass Worldwide killing,” referring to the coronavirus. Shares of Alibaba dropped 2.1% and JD.com fell by 3.2%.
