US close: Stocks close lower as jobless numbers continue to surge

US stocks closed lower on Thursday as market participants digested more dismal economic data.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.17%% at 24,345.72, while the S&P 500 was 0.92% weaker at 2,912.43 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.28% softer at 8,889.55%.

The Dow closed 288.14 points lower on Thursday, taking back some of the gains recorded in the previous session after market participants cheered positive data from a potential coronavirus treatment from Gilead Sciences and an update from the Federal Reserve.

The main focus for Thursday's session was the latest jobless claims report from the Labor Department, with initial jobless claims for the week ended 25 April rising another 3.83m.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average for initial claims, which aims to smooth out the variations in the data from one week to the next, declined by 757,000 to 5.03m.

Secondary unemployment claims, those which are not being filed for the first time and referencing the week ending on 18 April, increased by a further 2.17m to reach 17.99m.

Elsewhere on the macro front, a measure of business conditions in the Chicago region fell sharply in April to its lowest reading since 2009. The Chicago purchasing manager's index fell to 35.4 this month, well and truly short of March's reading of 47.8.

Still on data, personal income and spending in the US fell much more quickly than expected last month as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread across the country.

According to the Department of Commerce, personal income and spending fell by 2.0% and 7.5% in March when compared to the month before.

In corporate news, Gilead Sciences posted positive results from two tests on its drug remdesivir on Thursday that indicated it may be a suitable treatment for Covid-19. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Dr Anthony Fauci added that remdesivir showed a "clear-cut" positive effect when treating the coronavirus.

Gilead later told investors that it planned to have more than 140,000 treatment courses of remdesivir prepared by the end of May and said would spend as much as $50m for manufacturing scale-up and the costs of clinical trials.

Microsoft and Facebook shares helped the Nasdaq curb losses by leading a tech rally after both firms reported promising revenue figures despite the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Tesla shares were down on the session despite posting some well-received first-quarter figures overnight, registering a profit of $16m, while Twitter stocks slumped even though the social media giant topped expectations on earnings and user growth.