WALL Street stocks closed with slim losses as investors awaited today's key US inflation report.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 23.79 points to close at 6,540.05, never straying more than 30 points in either direction during the sluggish session.

There was little reaction to a Labour Department report saying the number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly shot up by 6,000 last week.

Many analysts had expected a slight fall in the figures, which offered some fleeting relief from worries that competition for workers will force companies to raise wages.

Declines outnumbered advances by a 6-to-5 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,116 up, 1,343 down and 846 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 421.80 million shares, against 451.49 million in the previous session.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 13.68 to 1,235.75, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 0.21 to 563.19.