US stock market opens lower with oil price decline

NEW YORK

The U.S. stock market opened lower Thursday with decline in oil prices and weekly initial jobless claims coming higher than expected in the country.

The Dow Jones industrial index fell 0.11 percent to begin the day at 16,880 points. The Nasdaq decreased 0.15 percent to start the day at 4,696 points and the S&P 500 fell 0.12 percent to begin the day at 1,984 points.

The international oil benchmark Brent crude was down almost 1.5 percent to reach $36.42 per barrel when the stock market opened. Meanwhile, the American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was 1.2 percent down to $34.23 a barrel around the same time.

In addition, initial jobless claims in the U.S., which measures the number of individuals filing for unemployment insurance first time, increased by 278,000 for the week ending Feb. 29.

According to the U.S.' Department of Labor, this was higher than both the market expectation of 271,000 and the previous week of 272,000.