NEW YORK — Weaker-than-expected sales reports from retailers and another large number of claims for unemployment benefits left stocks with a mixed finish Thursday, a day after the Dow Jones industrial average took its biggest dive in nearly a year.
“Companies are just not hiring the same number of workers that they laid off two years ago, and that’s leading to a very stale jobs environment,” said David Loesser, president of the Estate Planners Group, a financial advisory firm.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 41.59 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 12,248.55 Thursday.
The S&P 500 recouped much of its losses from earlier in the day and ended down 1.61 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,312.94. The Nasdaq composite was up for most of the day and finished with a gain of 4.12, or 0.2 percent, at 2,773.31.
Worries that the economic recovery was stalling caused a stock market rout Wednesday. Payroll processor ADP said private employers added just 38,000 jobs in May, down from 177,000 in April.
That, along with a sharply lower reading on a key manufacturing index, sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 280 points, the steepest fall since June 4, 2010.
A series of strong corporate profit reports gave the S&P 500 its best first quarter since 1998, but the index has lost 3.7 percent since April 29 as worries over the economy deepened. The index is still up 4.4 percent for the year.
Several retailers reported muted sales growth for May, adding to concerns that the U.S. economy is straining under higher costs for raw materials such as oil and cotton. Companies that catered to middle- and lower-income shoppers said that higher food and gas prices cut into sales. Gap Inc. fell 4.1 percent after sales fell across all its brands. Target Corp. fell 1.3 percent after missing expectations as sales traffic slowed during the second half of the month.
