U.S. stocks slide amid economic data, ECB decision

U.S. stocks reversed early gains to end lower Thursday, as investors digested a batch of economic data as well as the European Central Bank's (ECB) decision to keep its interest rates unchanged.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 72.32 points, or 0.37 percent, to 19,732.40. The S&P 500 lost 8.20 points, or 0.36 percent, to 2,263.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 15.57 points, or 0.28 percent, to 5,540.08.

U.S. privately-owned housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,226,000, beating market consensus, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

"The volatility in multi-family starts has been the cause of major fluctuations in the headline reading for the past four months. The biggest question facing the housing market in 2017 is how sales react to the jump in long-term interest rates, and will prices fall to adjust for the increased cost of financing," said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial.

Meanwhile, in the week ending Jan. 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 234,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level, said the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

The 4-week moving average was 246,750, a decrease of 10,250 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since Nov. 3, 1973 when it was 244,000.

Overseas, at Thursday's meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the 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.

In corporate news, shares of Netflix, Inc. jumped 3.86 percent to 138.41 U.S. dollars apiece after the video streaming giant posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results. Endit