Investing.com – Wall Street was unable to maintain early gains on Thursday, with Apple putting downward pressure on investor sentiment and unemployment data dampening optimism on the U.S. labor market, while oil lost early gains after testing the $47 level.
At 15:36GMT, or 11:36AM ET, the Dow Jones lost 39 points, or 0.22%, while the S&P 500 fell 6 points, or 0.28%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded down 36 points, or 0.75%.
On the economic front, weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rose on Thursday to 294,000, its highest level in more than year.
Meanwhile, economists pushed back their expectations for the tightening of U.S. monetary policy.
While June was not completely off the table, with almost a third of 90 economists surveyed by Reuters still placing that bet, the consensus expected the next rate hike to be delayed until September.
The economic outlook was a major factor for experts changing their opinion, even as Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester said on Thursday that inflation expectations have been relatively stable and added that risks around Fed forecasts should not paralyze policymakers.
Other Fed officials were also on tap later in the day.
Boston Fed chief Eric Rosengren was scheduled to give a speech at 15:45GMT, or 11:45AM ET.
Kansas City Fed president Esther George will talk about the economy at 17:30GMT, or 13:30ET.
In oil markets, West Texas Intermediate hit a 2016 high Thursday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that output disruptions were apt to erode excess supply and the agency slightly increased its forecast for demand, while noting that “any changes to our current 2016 global demand outlook are now more likely to be upwards than downwards.”
But buying sentiment fizzled early in the U.S. session after the barrel of WTI tested $47 with blame being placed on the return of Canadian production after closure due to the wildfires and the Kuwaiti oil minister stating that the June OPEC meeting would be for dialog with no action to be taken.
U.S. crude futures dropped 0.76% to $45.88 a barrel by 15:37GMT, or 11:37AM ET, while Brent oil traded down 1.11% to $47.07.
Also of note in precious metals, global gold demand at the start of 2016 rose at its fastest pace ever on inflows from exchange traded funds (ETFs), according to an industry report released on Thursday.
The 21% annual increase in the first quarter was the largest ever for the first three months of a year and the second fastest quarterly place on record, according the World Gold Council report.
In company news, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) led the Dow lower despite its denial of reports that it would stop selling music downloads via iTunes. The blue-chip fell more than 2%, hitting a one-year intraday low and allowing Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc C (NASDAQ:GOOG) to surpass it in market capitalization.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) was the second largest decliner on the blue-chip index with losses of more than 1% after analysts at JP Morgan resumed coverage with an underweight rating based on their opinion that the positive factors for the company were already being priced into the current stock price.
Monsanto (NYSE:MON) jumped more than 9% on a report that Bayer was considering an acquisition of the seed company.
Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS) tumbled more than 11% after quarterly earnings missed estimates.
In positive earnings news, Jack In The Box Inc (NASDAQ:JACK) soared almost 15% after a sales boost helped it beat profit forecasts.