Dow, S&P close down 1 percent, still report best month since 1987

The Dow Jones and The S&P 500 ended April with their best month since 1987 despite losses on Thursday amid reports of new unemployment claims. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

April 30 (UPI) — U.S. stocks closed Thursday with shallow losses a day after the blue chip bellwether index climbed by more than 500 points.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 288.14, or 1.17 percent, while the S&P 500 fell 0.92 percent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.28 percent.

Earlier Thursday, the Labor Department reported that another 3.8 million Americans had filed new unemployment claims, pushing the six-week total to more than 30 million.

In the midst of the overall market decline, several tech stocks rose on Thursday amid positive financial reports.

Facebook stock climbed 5.42 percent, while Amazon rose 4.27 percent, Apple rose 2.11 percent and Netflix increased 1.93 percent.

Despite Thursday’s drops the S&P 500 is looking to close out its best month since 1987. Going into Thursday, the index had climbed 13 percent in value over the month.

The Dow was up 10.5 percent in April, also recording its best month since 1987.

Wednesday, the Dow gained 532 points following a rather flat performance a day earlier.

In March, the S&P 500 fell 12.5 percent while the S&P 500 lost more than 13 percent.

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