Investing.com - U.S. stocks fell on Thursday due to soft U.S. manufacturing, housing and jobless claims reports while soft earnings also pushed broader equities indices lower.
At the close of U.S. trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.07%, the S&P 500 index fell 0.89%, while the Nasdaq Composite index fell 0.57%.
The Labor Department reported earlier that weekly initial jobless claims rose in line with expectations last week, but the number of continuing jobless claims remained above the 3 million mark for a second successive week.
The number of individuals filing for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose to 326,000, up from the previous week’s revised total of 325,000 and in line with expectations.
The number of people filing continuing unemployment claims rose to 3.056 million up from 3.022 million in the week to Jan. 11. Analysts had expected continuing claims to fall to 2.930 million.
Elsewhere, U.K.-based Markit Economics reported that U.S. factory output fell to a three-month low in January, mainly due to the impacts that wintry weather had on commerce.
The U.S. manufacturing PMI declined to 53.7 this month from a final reading of 55.0 in December. Analysts had expected the index to hold steady.
Also Thursday, the National Association of Realtors reported that U.S. existing home sales came in at 4.87 million units last month from 4.82 million in November, missing expectations for an increase to 4.94 million.
Weak data out of China also pushed share prices down.
The preliminary Chinese HSBC Manufacturing PMI fell to 49.6 for January from 50.5 in December, missing market calls for an uptick to 50.6.
Weaker-than-expected earnings from McDonald's pushed down share prices as well, though the company's share price rebounded and finished the session up 0.48%.
Elsewhere, Netflix drew market applause after the subscription streaming service projected customer growth that topped market estimates and said it may charge new users more to share accounts.
Separately, Herbalife took a hit earlier after Reuters reported a U.S. senator was seeking to probe the nutrition company, which has been accused of running a pyramid scheme by investors.
Leading Dow Jones Industrial Average performers included AT&T, up 1.36%, Verizon, up 1.05%, and Merck, up 0.51%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average's worst performers included American Express, down 2.15%, Boeing, down 2.12%, and DuPont, down 2.02%.
European indices, meanwhile, finished lower.
After the close of European trade, the EURO STOXX 50 fell 1.01%, France's CAC 40 fell 1.02%, while Germany's DAX 30 fell 0.92%. Meanwhile, in the U.K. the FTSE 100 finished down 0.78%.