Tech stocks slide as inflation fears mount amid strong labor-market data

Tech stocks slide as inflation fears mount amid strong labor-market data

US stocks opened lower on Thursday morning, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq sliding as investors mulled how better-than-expected jobless data would impact inflation. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.45%, around the highest level in a year. 

730,000 Americans filed for unemployment in the week that ended Saturday. That's lower than the 825,000 initial jobless claims economists surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting. 

"The sharp drop in jobless claims likely is due to people in states hit hardest by last week's huge storm, especially Texas, having better things to do than make jobless claims," said Ian Shepherdson, Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist. "We expect a rebound next week. The trend seems to be about flat, but we remain of the view that claims will soon start to trend down, slowly at first but then more quickly as the reopening of the economy accelerates in April and May." 

Continuing claims, which track Americans currently receiving unemployment benefits, dropped to 4.4 million for the week that ended February 13. Economists projected continuing claims to decline slightly to 4.5 million.

US durable goods orders rose 3.4% in January, beating analyst estimates of 1.1%.

Here's where US indexes stood after the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Thursday:

Stocks popular among Reddit traders rallied