U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Thursday as investors digested fresh economic data following the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates by a half percentage point as it battles high inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1% soon after the opening bell, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.2% and the Nasdaq Composite slid 1.4%, according to FactSet data, at last check. The Department of Labor said Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits in the week ending Dec. 10 fell to a nearly three-month low of 211,000. That’s below the total 232,000 that economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast. Other economic data released Thursday showed sales at U.S. retailers fell 0.6% in November, which was larger than expectations for a 0.3% decline.
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