U.S. stocks open lower on Bank of Japan's decision

U.S. stocks opened lower Thursday, as investors were surprised by the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) decision to maintain its monetary policy.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 104.51 points, or 0.58 percent, to 17,937.04. The S&P 500 shed 8.14 points, or 0.39 percent, to 2,087.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 7.09 points, or 0.15 percent, to 4,856.05.

The BOJ on Thursday decided to keep its current monetary policy despite market expectations of additional easing, while again putting off the target date of achieving its 2 percent inflation goal.

On the U.S. economic front, the U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 0.5 percent in the first quarter of 2016, worse than traders' estimates, according to the "advance" estimate released by the Commerce Department Thursday.

In the week ending April 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 257,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level, the Labor Department said Thursday.

In corporate news, shares of Facebook soared more than 10 percent in early trading Thursday as the social media giant posted quarterly earnings well above expectations.

U.S. stocks closed mixed Wednesday, as Wall Street assessed the Federal Reserve's decision to leave interest rates unchanged and the weak earnings report from the tech-giant Apple. Endi