US STOCKS-Wall Street falls on grim jobless claims data

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* Facebook jumps after upbeat quarterly revenue
* Tesla jumps after reporting profitable quarter
* U.S. weekly jobless claims remain elevated
* McDonald's dips as quarterly profit slides
* Indexes off: Dow 1.05%, S&P 500 0.83%, Nasdaq 0.21%

(Adds comments, updates prices throughout)
By C Nivedita and Shreyashi Sanyal
April 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Thursday as
millions of more Americans applied for jobless claims, taking
the shine off a strong rally this month and eclipsing upbeat
results from Facebook and Tesla.
All 11 S&P 500 sector indexes were trading lower, with
financials .SPSY , materials .SPLRCM and utilities .SPLRCU
leading declines.
Dramatic U.S. stimulus and hopes of a revival in business
activity as states reopen from lockdowns have powered a Wall
Street rally in April, putting the S&P 500 .SPX and Dow Jones
index .DJI on course for their best months since 1987.
But investors remain cautious of the pace of the recovery
from a looming recession, with economic indicators underlining
the extent of the damage already done.
The Labor Department's report showed initial jobless claims
totaled 3.84 million for the week ended April 25, a day after
data confirmed the biggest contraction for the U.S. economy in
the first quarter since the Great Recession. "The jobless claims figure is a kind of feedback from some
of the policy that we've undertaken as a country to fight (the
crisis), but hopefully a lot of these jobless folk will come
back into the workforce," said Matt Stucky, portfolio manager at
Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
"The timing of when that happens is going to be a function
of the road to recovery from the coronavirus."
The Federal Reserve pledged on Wednesday to expand emergency
programs to revive growth, but warned the economy could feel the
weight of consumer fear and social distancing for a year.
At 11:29 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 259.15 points, or 1.05%, at 24,374.71, the S&P 500 .SPX
was down 24.37 points, or 0.83%, at 2,915.14 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 18.28 points, or 0.21%, at 8,896.43.
Facebook Inc FB.O jumped 5% after the social media giant
posted better-than-expected quarterly revenue. The pandemic has been less disruptive to tech-related
stocks, with Facebook, Apple AAPL.O , Amazon.com AMZN.O ,
Netflix NFLX.O and Alphabet GOOGL.O ,the so-called FAANG
group of stocks, gaining between 12% and 25% this month.
Apple and Amazon.com will report results after markets
close.
"The SPX price action during this crisis has been led by a
handful of 'haves' (mostly the FAANGs) in a world in which most
companies are 'have nots'," said Nancy Davis, founder of asset
management firm Quadratic Capital Management in Greenwich,
Connecticut.
Electric-car maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O climbed 3.1% after
posting its third straight quarterly profit, taking investors by
surprise as its automaker peers were hit by a slump in consumer
demand and factory shutdowns. McDonald's Corp MCD.N shed 2.4% after it reported a 16.7%
slide in quarterly profit as most of its restaurants across the
globe limited their services to deliveries and take-aways.
American Airlines AAL.O fell 5% as the airline operator
posted its first quarterly loss since emerging from bankruptcy
in 2013 and warned of a $70 million a day cash burn.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.29-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE, nearly matching those on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded two new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 15 new highs and two new lows.