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U.S. stock indexes headed lower early Thursday, ahead of a decision by Food and Drug Administration committee on a vaccine approval, and further talks in Washington on another financial-aid package to combat the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, while U.S. weekly jobless claims rose to a three month high.

New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits jumped in early December to a nearly three-month, owing to an increase in layoffs after a record surge coronavirus cases as well as to filing delays after the Thanksgiving holiday. Initial jobless claims jumped 137,000 to 853,000.

President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Dr. Rochelle Walensky as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a person familiar with the decision, bringing a respected infectious diseases expert to the helm of a critical but demoralized agency that has struggled in its response to the coronavirus pandemic.