U.S. stocks open lower as investors weigh unemployment, retail sales data

U.S. stocks opened modestly lower Thursday as investors digested fresh economic data on unemployment claims, retail sales and manufacturing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.06%
edged down 0.2%, while the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.73%
fell 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-1.27%
dropped 0.7%, according to FactSet data, at last check. Initial jobless claims in the U.S. fell in the week ended Sept. 10 for a fifth straight week to a three-month low, according to a Labor Department report Thursday. Meanwhile, sales at U.S. retailers rose 0.3% in August, as Americans pay higher prices amid soaring inflation. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast that retail sales last month would be unchanged. In other economic data released Thursday, two regional gauges of manufacturing sentiment – the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s manufacturing index and the Empire State Index – moved into slight contraction territory in September.