US stocks fall as ECB cuts growth outlook

New York, March 7: Wall Street stocks fell in early trading on Thursday, extending a negative streak as the European Central Bank slashed its growth forecast.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has fallen the last three days, dropped 0.7 percent to 25,490.41.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.6 percent to 2,753.78, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.8 percent at 7,448.89.

The ECB announced fresh measures to juice the slowing eurozone economy, saying interest rates would remain at historic lows at least until the end of 2019 and offering new rounds of cheap loans to banks to keep credit flowing.

The moves came as the ECB cut its 2019 growth forecast to just 1.1 percent from the prior 1.7 percent. On Wednesday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development lowered its global growth forecast for the year.

The downcast ECB outlook comes amid a series of mixed economic reports in the United States. On Thursday, the Department of Labor reported that weekly jobless claims dipped by 3,000 to 223,000.

The report comes ahead of Friday's key jobs report for February. Analysts expect the US added 173,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate dipped to 3.8 percent from 4.0 percent.

(AFP/APP)