NEW YORK — A surprisingly poor signal on the jobs market sent stocks slightly lower Thursday as investors remained worried about a lack of hiring.
The modest drop came after the Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week.
Investors tried to muster a late-day rally, but there wasn’t enough momentum to push the Dow Jones industrial average back into positive territory. The Dow closed down 5 points after dropping as much as 68 points earlier in the day. Broader indexes also fell modestly.
Trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange fell to its second-lowest level of the year as many traders avoided the market altogether.
The Labor Department said initial claims for unemployment benefits jumped to 479,000 last week, from 460,000 a week earlier.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast new claims would fall modestly.
The high unemployment rate in the U.S. remains one of the biggest worries for investors. The surprise jump in claims last week suggests that employers are still reluctant to create jobs, which could keep a damper on economic growth the coming months.
Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors, cautioned that layoffs of temporary census workers might have skewed results somewhat, and that’s why the market didn’t fall that much.
Traders will get a stronger reading on the jobs market today, when the government releases its closely watched monthly tally of payrolls and the unemployment rate.
In other news, monthly retail sales reports showed shoppers remain skittish about spending.
The Dow fell 5.45, or 0.1 percent, to 10,674.98. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 1.43, or 0.1 percent, to 1,125.81, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 10.51, or 0.5 percent, to 2,293.06.
