US open: Stocks start off September in the red

As of 1515 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.68% at 31,295.52, while the S&P 500 was 0.92% weaker at 3,918.75 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.23% softer at 11,670.99.

The Dow opened 214.91 points lower on Thursday, extending losses recorded in the previous session following a weaker-than-expected reading on the US jobs market from consultancy ADP.

With the blue-chip Dow Jones closing the month roughly 4.1% lower, while the S&P and Nasdaq recorded losses of 4.2% and 4.6%, respectively, market participants will now look to see whether major indices will again touch June lows in September, a historically poor month for markets, amid recent hawkish comments from central bank officials.

Oil prices were drawing an amount of investor attention at the open, with prices dropping to levels not seen since before Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate fell 1.56% early on Thursday to sit at $88.15 per barrel, while Brent Crude shed 1.63% to $94.08 a barrel.

Thursday's primary focus, as it often is, will be the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims report, with data revealing that jobless claims decreased more than expected yet again in the week ended 27 August. In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of initial unemployment claims dipped by 5,000 week-on-week to reach 232,000 - the lowest level for initial claims since the week ended 25 June and easily beating the 248,000 print pencilled in by economists.

With the jobs market in mind, US-based companies announced plans to cut 20,485 jobs in August, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, the lowest reading in the last six months.

Elsewhere on the macro front, August's S&P Global manufacturing PMI was upwardly revised to 51.5 in August from a preliminary reading of 51.3 but still pointed to the slowest growth in factory activity since July 2020.

On the other hand, the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing PMI was unchanged at 52.8 in August, beating market forecasts for a print of 52 but still pointing to low levels of factory growth not seen since June 2020.

Finally, construction spending fell 0.4% month-on-month in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.78bn, according to the Census Bureau, in line with market expectations and a slight deceleration from the previous month's 0.5% drop.

No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Thursday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com