US stocks dip on poor economic news

NEW YORK: US stock markets dipped Thursday, as poor economic news from Europe and China overshadowed more positive data on the domestic US jobs market.

"Neither corporate news nor a multi-year low in weekly initial jobless claims have been able to meaningfully improve sentiment," said analysts at Briefing.com.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 78.48 points (0.60 per cent) to reach 13,046.14.

The broad-market SandP 500 lost 10.11 points (0.72 per cent) to 1,392.78, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite fell 12.00 points (0.39 per cent) to 3,063.32.

In China, manufacturing activity fell to a four-month low in March, HSBC bank said on Thursday, adding fuel to concerns over slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.

Eurozone business activity fell more sharply than expected in March, indicating that the 17-nation single currency area slid back into recession, a key survey showed.

A general strike in Portugal and data that showed Ireland tipping back into recession also clouded the waters.

Irish gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter after a contraction of 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, the Central Statistics Office said in a statement, placing Ireland back into a technical recession.

But in the United States, authorities said new claims for unemployment benefits reached a fresh four-year low last week, as the distressed labor market slowly improves.

McDonald's shares fell almost one per cent after chief executive Jim Skinner announced he would retire in June after 41 years at the firm.

Amid the Dow blue chips, energy firms took the brunt of the losses as oil prices dipped.

Chevron fell more than two per cent while ExxonMobil was down 0.8 per cent. -- AFP