NEW YORK - US stocks swung lower on Thursday after fresh government data showed a worse-than-expected increase in jobless claims and a slide in housing starts.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 121.86 points (1.48 per cent) to 8,106.24 in opening trade, a day after Wall Street roared higher on strong earnings from IBM and others.

REDMOND (Washington) - MICROSOFT says it will slash 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months as it reported an 11 per cent drop in second-quarter profit.

The software giant said on Thursday the moves were driven by deteriorating global economic conditions and lower client revenue, resulting from weakness in the PC market and a shift to lower-priced notebook models.

WASHINGTON - THE number of new US unemployment claims shot up to 589,000 in the past week, matching the highest level in over 16 years, the Labour Department said on Thursday.

New claims in the week to January 17 rose the same same level as in late December, which was the highest since November 1982. The number was above the consensus forecast of 548,000 new claims.