(AP) -- NEW YORK - Stocks are closing slightly lower after the government reported that more people applied for unemployment benefits last week.
The Labor Department said first-time applications for unemployment rose 35,000 from the week before and reached their highest level since October.
Merck & Co. fell 6.6 percent after the company said that a clinical trial for one of its drugs would be discontinued.
At the market close Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 24 points, or 0.2 percent, to 11,732. The S&P 500 fell 2, or 0.2 percent, to 1,284. The Nasdaq composite lost 2, or 0.1 percent, to 2,735.
Four stocks fell for every three that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume came to 931 million shares.
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