U.S. stocks retreat amid disappointing earnings

U.S. stocks traded lower Thursday as investors digested a slew of economic data and disappointing quarterly earnings reports.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 77.11 points, or 0.37 percent, to 20,866.00. The S&P 500 lost 11.05 points, or 0.46 percent, to 2,388.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index erased 30.04 points, or 0.49 percent, to 6,099.10.

On the earnings front, shares of Snap Inc. tumbled 18.56 percent to 18.71 U.S. dollars in intraday trading, as its first quarterly results since going public missed estimates.

After the closing bell Wednesday, the company reported its first-quarter revenue of 149.65 million dollars, lower than the 158 million dollars expected by a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate.

On Thursday, Macy's Inc reported earnings of 23 cents per diluted share, compared with 37 cents per diluted share in the first quarter last year. Shares of Macy's dropped 13.55 percent to 25.36 dollars in intraday trading.

On the economic front, in the week ending May 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 236,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 238,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

The 4-week moving average was 243,500, an increase of 500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 243,000.

In a separate report, the department said the seasonally adjusted Producer Price Index for final demand advanced 0.5 percent in April.

On an unadjusted basis, the final demand index rose 2.5 percent for the 12 months ended April 2017, the largest increase since moving up 2.8 percent for the 12 months ended February 2012. Endit