Wall Street entered Thursday's session mixed, only to turn sharply negative in later trading as mega-cap tech shares continued to fall and U.S. unemployment data soared investor sentiment. The broader market was impacted by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares falling 3% after gaining 2.7% earlier in the session. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) also ended only slightly up after jumping more than 8%, demonstrating just how volatile Thursday's session was. In the end, all three market benchmarks closed more than 1% lower.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims for the week ended Sept. 5 came in above consensus at 884,000, staying flat with the prior week. While the amount is below 1 million for the second consecutive week, continuing unemployment claims spiked above 13 million for the week ended Aug. 29. The elevation in continuing claims shows that the job market is not readily taking displaced workers back in as the coronavirus pandemic remains constant.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -1.76% or -59.96 points to 3,339.00
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -1.45% or -405.89 points to 27,534.58
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -1.99% or -221.97 points to 10,919.59
For Major Stock News, big tech stocks dropped again during Thursday's session--Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX). The S&P 500 energy sector was the biggest loser against other industries as oil prices dropped on future demand fears--Apache (NASDAQ: APA), EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) all dropping about 8%. Stay-at-home favorites were lifted Thursday following RH's (NYSE: RH) explosive quarterly earnings beat--At Home Group (NYSE: HOME), Blue Apron (NYSE: APRN), Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY), Farfetch (NYSE: FTCH) and Wayfair (NYSE: W).
For Sector Performance, every industry reversed course on Thursday and fell alongside the broader market. The negative performance losses were as follows: Energy -3.67%, Information Technology -2.28%, Utilities -1.77%, Consumer Discretionary -1.77%, CommunicationService -1.57%, Health Care -1.55%, Real Estate -1.47%, Financial -1.41%, Industrials -1.27%, Consumer Staples -1.25%, or Materials -0.94%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) remained unchanged against several other global currencies on Thursday, following the European Central Bank keeping its monetary policy unchanged. Gold (NYSE: GLD) spiked as jobless claims remained higher than desired, adding to the general uncertainty of the future as the coronavirus pandemic remains a constant threat. Spot gold was up 0.7% at $1,959.93 per ounce, while gold futures settled up at $1,967.80 per ounce. Crude oil futures slipped after the U.S. Energy Information Administration stated that crude inventories had increase by 2 million barrels last week. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) declined 0.6% to $40.54 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) fell 2% to settle at $37.30 per barrel.
For Friday, investors will turn towards fresh U.S. consumer inflation data that is set to release on Friday, as well as Kroger (NYSE: KO) earnings before opening bell.