NEW YORK: US stock markets dipped Thursday, as poor economic news from Europe and China overshadowed more positive data about the domestic US jobs market.
"Neither corporate news nor a multi-year low in weekly initial jobless claims have been able to meaningfully improve sentiment," said analysts at Briefing.com.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 78.48 points (0.60 percent) to reach 13,046.14.
The broad-market S&P 500 lost 10.11 points (0.72 percent) to 1,392.78, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite fell 12.00 points (0.39 percent) to 3,063.32.
In China, manufacturing activity fell to a four-month low in March, HSBC bank said on Thursday, adding fuel to concerns over slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.
Eurozone business activity fell more sharply than expected in March, indicating that the 17-nation single currency area slid back into recession, a key survey showed.
A general strike in Portugal and data that showed Ireland tipping back into recession also clouded the waters.
Irish gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter after a contraction of 1.1 percent in the third quarter, the Central Statistics Office said in a statement, placing Ireland back into a technical recession.
But in the United States, authorities said new claims for unemployment benefits reached a fresh four-year low last week, as the distressed labor market slowly improves.
McDonald's shares fell almost one percent after chief executive Jim Skinner announced he would retire in June after 41 years at the firm.
Amid the Dow blue chips, energy firms took the brunt of the losses as oil prices dipped.
Chevron fell more than two percent while ExxonMobil was down 0.8 percent.
Bond prices climbed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.28 percent from 2.29 percent Wednesday, while the 30-year declined to 3.36 percent from 3.38 percent.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
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