U.S. stocks open lower after ECB decision

U.S. stocks opened slightly lower on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to keep its interest rates unchanged.

The Governing Council of the ECB on Thursday decided that the interest rate on main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00 percent, 0.25 percent and -0.40 percent, respectively.

The European central bank also extended its quantitative easing program until December 2017, but will reduce purchases to 60 billion euros (64 billion U.S. dollars) per month. Current asset purchases of 80 billion euros (85 billion dollars) per month were due to end in March 2017 before the decision.

On the economic front, in the week ending Dec. 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 258,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level, the U.S. Labor Department reported.

The four-week moving average was 252,500, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 251,500.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 14.45 points, or 0.07 percent, to 19,535.17. The S&P 500 lost 2.09 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,239.26. The Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 1.56 points, or 0.03 percent, to 5,392.20.

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks rose for a third straight session, with both the Dow and the S&P 500 setting new closing records, as investors assessed the case of a December rate hike ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting. Endi