US stocks declined on Thursday after weekly jobless claims data came in higher than expectations, falling the least since March on a week-over-week basis.

Filings for unemployment benefits hit 1.3 million in the week ended Saturday, the Labor Department announced Thursday. That was down just 10,000 from the previous week’s reading and remains at historically high levels. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected claims to fall to 1.25 million for the week.

While claims have declined for 15 weeks in a row, Thursday’s reading is still roughly double the 665,000 filings made during the worst week of the Great Recession. Since the coronavirus pandemic slammed the US economy, more than 51 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits.

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

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Data detailing consumer spending trends pointed to a rosier economic recovery. Retail sales jumped 7.5% in June, beating the economist estimate of a 5% increase, according to Reuters. The uptick follows a record-breaking 18.2% surge in May as economic reopenings fueled a bounce-back in spending activity.

Twitter plunged and dragged on the Nasdaq composite following Wednesday afternoon's bitcoin scandal. Hackers gained access to several high-profile Twitter accounts including those of President Barack Obama, Apple, Elon Musk, and Kim Kardashian West, calling on the accounts' followers to send bitcoin. Twitter temporarily banned verified users from tweeting to stem the hackers' messages.

"Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened," CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted Wednesday night. "We're diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened."

Bank of America shares fell slightly after reporting better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter. The firm set aside $4 billion for loan loss reserves over the period, signaling continued credit market risk among Wall Street's major banks.

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Morgan Stanley trounced analyst estimates as strong trading desk performances boosted profits over the period.

Oil futures traded lower. West Texas Intermediate crude fell as much as 1.5%, to $40.60 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, declined 1%, to $43.34 per barrel, at intraday lows.

The market slump followed a moderate uptick across indexed on Wednesday on the back of positive coronavirus vaccine news. Biotech firm Moderna announced all 45 participants in a Phase 1 trial showed immune system responses to an experimental virus vaccine. Indexes also turned higher after Goldman Sachs easily surpassed second-quarter estimates and posted its second-best quarterly revenue of all time.

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