US stocks fall in early trading despite strong data

US stock indices opened lower on Thursday, despite the release of strong economic data that showed a drop in the US unemployment claims to pre-pandemic levels.

The US Department of Labor revealed that the number of initial unemployment claims fell to 547K last week, the lowest reading since March 2020, better than forecasts of 607K.

This comes amid anticipation of the results of major companies, led by Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet.

As for stocks, Dow Jones fell 0.3% or 115 points to 34,022 as of 14:11 GMT, Nasdaq fell 0.1% or 7 points to 13,942, and S&P 500 fell 0.1% or 6 points to 4,167.