US stocks edge lower as Friday's jobs report looms

Major US equity indices edged lower during opening trade on Thursday as investors preferred to remain on the sidelines ahead of the closely watch monthly jobs report on Friday. 

Preceding the much-awaited report, data released on Thursday showed US weekly jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 249K, pointing to the underlying strength of the US labor market.

At the time of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 85 points and slipped below 18,200, while the broader S&P 500 index slipped 6 points to 2,155. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq composite turned back below 5,300 mark, losing around 20 points. 

Among individual movers, shares of Twitter traded sharply lower by over 15% on news reports that indicated Google and Apple are unlikely to make a bid to acquire the micro-blogging site.

In other markets, the overall US Dollar Index extended its bullish momentum and the GBP/USD pair plunged to a fresh multi-decade lows. Meanwhile, a stronger greenback was also seen weighing on dollar-denominated commodities - like gold, which has now returned back to pre-Brexit levels.