NEW YORK: US stocks fell on Thursday following the S&P 500's four straight days of gains as investors held out for a new coronavirus relief package, with latest data showing signs that a recovery in the labour market was stalling.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose last week for the first time in nearly four months against the backdrop of a resurgence in US coronavirus cases, which topped 4 million across the country. Of the 75 S&P 500 companies that have reported quarterly results, 77% of them have beaten dramatically lowered profit estimates, according to IBES Refinitiv data.

Microsoft Corp fell 1.9%, weighing the most on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, as its flagship cloud computing business Azure reported quarterly sales growth of under 50% for the first time ever. Tesla Inc edged higher after posting a fourth consecutive quarterly profit, clearing a hurdle that could lead to the electric carmaker's inclusion in the S&P 500 index.

Twitter Inc jumped 5.4% as it reported record yearly growth in daily users even as its ad sales sank. At 11:05 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 144.19 points, or 0.53%, at 26,861.65 and the S&P 500 was down 6.69 points, or 0.20%, at 3,269.33. The Nasdaq Composite was down 30.46 points, or 0.28%, at 10,675.67.