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Wall Street's major averages declined in the week as investors pored through a new wave of earnings reports while grappling with fears over the soaring coronavirus cases in the United States.
For the week ending Friday, the Dow slid 0.8 percent, the SP 500 dipped 0.3 percent, and the Nasdaq lost 1.3 percent.
The SP U.S. Listed China 50 index, which is designed to track the performance of the 50 largest Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges by total market cap, logged a weekly decline of 1.7 percent.
Investors grew concerned that a continued spike in U.S. coronavirus infections would threaten the country's economic recovery.
An increasing number of U.S. states have reported record daily increases in COVID-19 infections recently. Businesses are being restricted again and unemployment is creeping upwards.
Latest data showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose last week for the first time in nearly four months.
U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to gauge layoffs, came in at 1.416 million in the week ending July 18, an increase of 109,000 from the previous week's revised level, the Department of Labor reported Thursday. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast 1.3 million initial claims.
"Jobless claims rose last week for the first time since the last week in March," Chris Low, chief economist at FHN Financial, said in a note, commenting on the jobless claims numbers.
"They didn't rise by much, but the increase suggests pared back re-opening has hurt the economy," said Low.
Flash U.S. Services Business Activity Index registered 49.6 in July, compared with 47.9 in the prior month, London-based global information provider IHS Markit reported on Friday. The reading was below analyst expectations at 50.4, according to Econoday. Meanwhile, the IHS Markit flash U.S. manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) rose to 51.3 in July from 49.8 in the prior month, weaker than estimates for 51.4.
"Growth was impeded, however, by an increased rate of decline of new orders, linked in part to renewed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) containment measures," said IHS Markit.
More than 4.14 million confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States, with over 146,000 deaths, as of Saturday afternoon, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Wall Street also paid close attention to the earnings season as many companies reported this week.
U.S. chipmaker Intel reported second-quarter results that topped estimates, but offered downbeat guidance for the third quarter. The stock plunged more than 16 percent on Friday.
U.S. beverage giant Coca-Cola said that its comparable earnings per share declined 33 percent to 42 cents in the second quarter and its revenue fell noticeably.
United Airlines reported a net loss of 1.6 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter and an 87 percent year-over-year revenue slump due to the coronavirus impact.
U.S. tech giant Microsoft reported quarterly results, with earnings of 1.46 U.S. dollars per share and a 13-percent increase in revenue to 38 billion dollars.
