By Andrea Hargraves 
North American stock markets closed lower, with investors digesting new data and waiting for more indicators to provide some indication regarding the likely direction of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.
Major indices on the other side of the Atlantic lost ground. Despite the downward revision in US economic growth in the first quarter, other indicators point to strong economic activity, which negatively affects expectations that the central bank will cut interest rates this year.
Other data released on Thursday included US unemployment claims, which increased by 3,000 last week (compared to the previous week), to 219,000, a figure higher than the 218,000 expected by economists polled by Reuters.
Despite the increase in requests for this support, the number is still considered low, which means that the North American labor market remains strong – and for this very reason, the slowdown in GDP may not last, prompting the Fed to be cautious. In the future. Easing monetary policy this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.86% to 38,111.48 points, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.60% to 5,235.48 points. The Nasdaq technology index recorded a decline of 1.08% to 16,737.08 points.
Shortly after the session opened, the development feed for the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices experienced problems for about an hour and a half. [das 10:41 até pouco depois das 12:00 (menos cinco horas face a Lisboa)]But this did not affect stock trading. What happened was that the values of the two indicators were not generated, but the problem was quickly resolved.
“The data feeds experienced an issue that suspended calculations for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indices for a little over an hour. However, trading continued normally and individual stock prices were not affected,” CNBC quoted exchange operator CME Group as saying.
Investors are now awaiting US personal consumer spending data, which will be released tomorrow. Remember, this is the Fed's preferred inflation indicator.