NEW YORK: US stocks opened lower on Wednesday as the government released a flood of data that showed a big drop in new unemployment filings and weaker-than-expected orders of big-ticket manufactured goods.

Stealing the spotlight was a Labor Department report showing new unemployment claim filings fell last week to below where they were before the Covid-19 pandemic and also to their lowest level in decades, though analysts believe that is a consequence of the data's seasonal adjustment.

The Commerce Department said durable goods orders dropped for the second straight month in October, but the report showed much of that was caused by weakness in the aviation sector, while other manufacturers were stronger.

US stocks open higher as Fed Chair Powell renominated

Patrick J. O'Hare of Briefing.com said that "worries about a potentially more aggressive Federal Reserve have impacted sentiment," as the central bank could take the generally positive data as a signal to more quickly end the stimulus that has underpinned markets' rise.

About 15 minutes into trading, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5 percent at 35,645.21.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.1 percent to 15,601.93, while the broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.6 percent to 4,661.84.