Small-cap stocks pushed lower to start Thursday’s session, as the latest figures on weekly claims showed record large numbers of U.S. citizens are on unemployment insurance. In addition, earnings news and monthly retailer sales figures are sloppy as expected, adding to the bearish tone. At 10:01 a.m. ET, the Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM) was down 4.93, or 1.10%, at 443.55. Although small caps remain above the January lows, the Dow today slipped to the lowest point since the Nov. 21 bottom was carved out.

The weekly claims report rose to a new cycle high, as a sobering number of Americans were forced to file for unemployment benefits last week. The headline figure on claims came out at 626,000, which was way ahead of the projection of 592,000. That figure marked the highest level on weekly claims since 1982. Even more sobering is that the number of people forced to remain on the unemployment rolls climbed to 4.78 million, which is the largest number on record. Although these figures won’t make it into Friday’s big monthly Labor Department jobs report for January, it’s still a troubling sign.

At the same time that the weekly claims report came out, the latest reading on productivity was released, and the number topped the forecast by quite a bit, with productivity coming in at 3.2%, well above the 1.4% projection. The factory orders report at 10:00 a.m. ET came in at minus 3.9% and included a hefty downward revision to last month’s report.

Coming into today’s action, stock markets in Europe and Asia were seeing a mild retreat, with European shares pulled down by losses for insurance companies and consumer products firms. Swiss Re, the world’s second-largest insurer saw double-digit losses in European trading and Warren Buffett invested about $2.6 billion in the firm. The Bank of England trimmed another 50 basis points off their benchmark interest rate, bringing rates down to 1%, the lowest level in more than 300 years for the bank. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank opted to leave their benchmark . . .

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