Stocks slide as Wall Street rally pauses, Amazon falls after hitting record; European markets close lower as investors react to euro zone data; Lufthansa up 3%; BELEX15 remains in green for a fifth straight days;  Slovenian Krka reports 22% jump in quarterly sales & 21% higher net profit
Stocks dropped on Thursday as Wall Street digested a strong rally this week along with the latest weekly jobless claims data and rising tensions between China and the U.S. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 101.78 points lower, or 0.4%, at 24,474.12. The S&P 500 fell 0.8% to 2,948.51 while the Nasdaq Composite was down nearly 1% to 9,284.88.
The Labor Department reported Thursday another 2.4 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week. Thursday’s report brings the total number of filings during the pandemic to more than 38 million. The number of continuing claims was at 25.07 million, its highest level on record.
Rising tensions between China and the U.S. harmed market sentiment on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill that could ban Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Baidu from listing on U.S. exchanges.

European stocks closed lower on Thursday as euro zone PMI (purchasing managers’ index) data indicated another slowdown in activity for the region’s manufacturing and services industry in May.
IHS Markit euro zone PMI data Thursday morning showed that economic activity contracted less drastically in May, with many countries in the bloc taking steps to reopen their economies.
Lufthansa shares climbed almost 3% after the German carrier announced it was in talks over a $10-billion state rescue deal.

Serbian BELEX15 remains in green as it added 0.14%. The index has been in an uptrend for the last five days. Yesterday it was supported mainly by NIS, which gained 1.2%, while Komercijana Banka was the most traded name, with RSD 2.9m in volume. We saw no major corporate or macro news.
Slovenian pharma company, Krka, ended 1Q20 session with strong results. The company posted 22% jump in sales, as export increased at double digit growth rate. Profitability was also improved, while net profit jumped 21% y/y in the period.
Source: CNBC, Ilirika