New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange ended in red on Thursday, continuing a jagged week, in a market closely observing the renewed tension between the United States and China and the gradual reopening of the American economy.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.47% to 24,474.12 points.

The highly technological Nasdaq lost 0.97% to 9,284.88 points and the S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, dropped 0.78% to 2,948.51 points.

The New York market finished in a different direction every day since the beginning of the week, a sign of the high volatility that drives it.

"Investors are just trying to figure out what the next catalyst is going to be," said Art Hogan of National, noting that the upsurge in Sino-US tensions is weighing heavily on market sentiment.

Beijing on Thursday threatened Washington with "retaliation" if the United States Congress adopts sanctions against China for its alleged responsibility in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Republican senators introduced a bill in mid-May that would empower President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on China if Beijing does not provide a "full account" of the pandemic that emerged in Wuhan in late 2019.

Investors also learned of several important indicators on Thursday.

More than 2.43 million Americans were newly unemployed last week, according to figures released Thursday by the Labor Department.

The world's largest economy remains strongly affected by the consequences of the sudden slowdown in activity caused by the new coronavirus.

The number of new unemployment benefit claimants is, however, down compared to the previous week and has continued to decline since a peak of 6.8 million new unemployed workers reached at the end of March.

In addition, manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region (northeast of the United States) remained in the red in May for the third month in a row, still affected by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the index of the local antenna of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), also published Thursday.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the US debt fell slightly, to 0.6736% against 0.6801% Wednesday evening.

© 2020 AFP