US Market falls amid renewed tensions with China

The US equity market finished session lower after wobbling between small gains and losses on Thursday, 21 May 2020, amid rising tensions between the US and China and after data showed another wave of Americans applied for unemployment benefits because of the coronavirus pandemic.

At closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 101.78 points, or 0.4%, to 24,474.12. The S&P 500 - a gauge of US retirement and education savings accounts - lost 23.10 points, or 0.78%, to 2,948.51. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 90.90 points, or 0.97%, to 9,284.88.

Markets on the back foot after the Senate passed a bill aiming to delist Chinese companies from American exchanges. The Senate passed a bill aiming to delist Chinese companies from American exchanges. Lawmakers and the White House have repeatedly raised concerns about US-listed firms that may be under Chinese government control or receiving capital from state funds. That measure was passed after President Donald Trump said in a tweet that the incompetence of China caused this mass Worldwide killing, referring to the coronavirus.

The losses also came amid data that showed jobless claims reached 2.4 million for the week that ended on Saturday. The latest data pushed the figure's nine-week total to nearly 39 million, surpassing the 37 million Americans who filed for unemployment insurance during the 18-month Great Recession.

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