"It is still a difficult job market"
- Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics Inc.
The number of Americans claiming for unemployment benefits rose less than economists forecast to 365,000 in the week ended July 28 from 357,000 the week before, said the Department of Labor on Thursday.
"It is still a difficult job market," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. "Companies are not panicking by cutting workers. They are going to wait out the uncertainty related to Europe and the U.S. fiscal cliff."
Also Thursday, a report showed that U.S. factory orders fell 0.5 per cent from May, when bookings rose a downwardly revised 0.5 per cent.
The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 0.74% to 1,365.00. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged lower 0.71%, or 92.18 points, to 12,878.88. The Nasdaq Composite erased 0.36% to 2,909.77.
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