NEW YORK: US stocks followed European counterparts lower Thursday, the key indices falling from the opening bell after lackluster new economic data.
After an hour of trade (1430 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 83.89 points (0.64 percent) to 13,042.32.
The broad-based S&P 500 lost 12.37 (0.88 percent) to 1,393.17, while the tech-centric Nasdaq gave up 22.49 (0.72 percent) to 3,082.47.
Data confirming the peppy 3.0 percent fourth-quarter economic growth rate and the slow fall in jobless claims did not impress investors.
Analysts also credited the weak opening on the close of the period for adjusting portfolios ahead of the end of the quarter, which some said had helped boost stocks before Tuesday.
"A bearish blanket of fog hangs over Wall Street," said Karee Venema of Schaeffer's Investment Research.
In addition to not finding inspiration in the freshUSdata, she said, "traders have also turned a wary eye back overseas, where concerns overSpain's unpopular austerity measures, as well asChina's faltering growth, have resurfaced."
American Express led the losers in the Dow, falling 1.9 percent.
Big box electronics retailer Best Buy lost 6.2 percent after reporting a fourth-quarter loss. Hit by competition from Internet retailers and changing consumer tastes, the company said it would close 50 stores and seek to cut costs by $800 million by 2015.
Open-source software firm Red Hat jumped 13.7 percent after reporting a 7.3 percent rise in fourth-quarter income and announcing a $300 million share buyback program.
Shares of biotech testing systems provider Illumina surged 4.3 percent to $52.01 after drugmaker Roche raised its hostile bid for the company to $51 a share from $44.50 earlier.
US bond prices rose. The interest on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 2.17 percent from 2.20 percent late Wednesday, while the 30-year moved to 3.28 percent from 3.30 percent.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
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