Stocks slipped lower on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling over 150 points, as investors remained cautious amid the threat of the Delta variant on U.S. economic recovery and the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy moves.

Here's how the market settled on Thursday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): -0.46% or -20.77 points to 4,493.30

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): -0.43% or -151.23 points to 34,879.84

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -0.25% or -38.38 points to 15,248.25

Amazon to cover 100% of college tuition costs for U.S. hourly employees:

Amazon (AMZN  ) announced Thursday that it will offer to pay 100% of college tuition for its 750,000 U.S. hourly employees.

Starting in January, the e-commerce giant will cover the cost of college tuition, fees and textbooks for hourly employees after 90 days of employment, Amazon said. The company will also cover costs for high school diploma programs, GEDs and English as a second language certifications.

Amazon had previously offered to pay 95% of tuition, fees and textbooks for hourly associated through its career choice program.

Microsoft delays U.S. office reopenings indefinitely:

Microsoft (MSFT  ) announced Thursday that it will indefinitely delay U.S. office reopenings of its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, as well as other U.S. locations as the coronavirus continues to surge nationwide. The tech giant had previously set Oct. 4 as it's reopening date, but currently did not provide a replacement target.

"Given the uncertainty of COVID-19, we've decided against attempting to forecast a new date for a full reopening of our U.S. work sites in favor of opening U.S. work sites as soon as we're able to do so safely based on public health guidance," Jared Spataro, a Microsoft corporate vice president, wrote in a blog post.

Jobless claims fall to another fresh pandemic-era low:

Jobless claims reach a fresh pandemic-era low last week, according to the Labor Department's new report published Thursday, as the labor market continues its choppy recovery from its pandemic height of 6.1 million in March 2020.

Initial unemployment claims dropped to 310,000 for the week ended Sept. 4, falling from the previous week's level of 345,000 and coming in below consensus expectations for 335,000.

Moreover, continuing jobless claims also declined for the week ended Aug. 28, dropping by 22,000 from the previous week's total, but exceeding consensus expectations. Still, this marked the lowest level for continuing claims since March 14, 2020. The four-week moving average for continuing claims also fell to 2.84 million.

Here's how benchmarks started trading soon after opening bell:

S&P 500 Index: -0.06% or -2.74 points to 4,511.33

Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.11% or -39.34 points to 34,991.73

Nasdaq Composite Index: +0.09% or +14.14 points to 15,300.78