US open: Wall Street on track to end 2015 with losses

Wall Street looked set to end the year lower following the release of weaker than expected data on jobs and manufacturing sector activity, although some economists were still sanguine on both fronts.

As of 15:42GMT the Dow Jones Industrials was trading lower by 0.84% or 148 points to 17,456, alongside drops of 16 and 43 points in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, respectively.

The US jobs market softened slightly at the end of the year according to one of the most widely tracked measures, but a government statisticias pointed the finger to seasonal quirks in the figures as the cause.

Initial US weekly unemployment claims increased by 20,000 to reach 287,000 during the week ending on 26 December, according to figures released by the US Department of Labor on Thursday.

Economists had anticipated a smaller rise to 275,000.

Harder to dismiss was the drop in Market News International's Chicago purchasing managers' index from a reading of 48.7 in November to 42.9 - its lowest since August 2009.

That was well below the median market forecast for a print of 50.0.

Nonetheless, in a research note sent to clients Barclays's Rob Martin had this to say: "The Chicago PMI, formerly a reliable leading indicator of the national ISM indices, has experienced heightened volatility this year. While the negative reading in December suggests a sizable decline in Chicago-area activity, we do not see this morning’s print as necessarily reflecting broader national trends."

European markets were similarly downbeat at the close of 2015, with the benchmark Stoxx 600 index and France's CAC both slipping in thin volumes, while Germany's DAX was closed.

China's benchmark Shanghai Composite closed its final session of the year 33.69 points, or 0.94% lower at 3,539.18, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed up just 0.15% at 21,914.40.

In commodity markets, West Texas Intermediate oil futures for delivery in Feburary were rebounding 0.30% to stand at $36.73 per barrel on NYMEX.

Crude oil prices tanked on Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported a 2.6m barrel expansion in domestic crude stockpiles on the back of higher imports and production. Analysts had been expecting the EIA to report a drop in stockpiles.

On the corporate front, shares of Chimerix were notching up gains of 11.3% after hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s investment firm announced a 5.3% stake in the biotech company.

The worst performing industrial sectors were: Platinum (-2.06%), Tires (-1.69%) and Defense (-1.68%).

In currencies, the dollar was stronger against some of its major rivals, gaining 0.33% against the pound to 1.4768 and 0.42% versus the euro to 1.0885 but was on the backfoot by 0.30% in its cross with the Japanese yen at 120.16