US stocks fall following weak economic data

The major US stock benchmarks fell in early trading on Thursday, weighed down by the worse-than-expected economic data.

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday held the interest rate between zero and 0.25%, and signaled that it plans to keep it near zero at least until the end of 2023.

The initial US unemployment claims fell to 860,000 last week, but still lowers than forecasts of 825,000.

The building permits reached 147 million, which is also lower than forecasts of 1.51 million, and the housing starts reached 1.42 million units, missing forecasts of 1.47 million.

As for stocks, Dow Jones fell 0.5% or 132 points to 27,905 as of 15:17 GMT, Nasdaq fell 1.3% or 145 points to 10,905, and S&P 500 fell 0.8% or 28 points to 3,357.