Stocks traded lower on Thursday, with a major tech sell off leading to the Nasdaq underperforming with a drop of 3.5% for its worst session since October. Investors were concerned about a rapid rise in U.S. Treasury yields rose to their highest levels since Feb 2020, with 10-year yields climbing as high as 1.6% before settling around 1.52%.
Meanwhile, weekly unemployment claims for the week ended Feb. 20 fell by a more-than-expected rate at 730,000, according to the Labor Department's latest reading. Last week's jobless claims total was better than the 825,000 expected and was an improvement from the prior week's downwardly revised reading of 841,000. Moreover, continuing jobless claims also declined, with claims falling to 4.419 million, down from the upwardly revised 4.520 million from the previous week.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -2.45% or -96.18 points to 3,829.25
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -1.76% or -561.36 points to 31,400.50
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -3.52% or -478.54 points to 13,119.43
For Stocks, GameStop (NYSE: GME) shares surged again on Thursday after rising by more than 100% in the previous session. The video game retailer's stock rose by over 18% during the session, with other social media favorites like AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC) and Koss (NASDAQ: KOSS) gaining as well. Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) shares also jumped on Thursday after the social media company unveiled new growth goals for its revenue and monthly active users. Twitter expects to double its revenue by the end of 2023.
For Sector Performance, all sectors on the S&P 500 fell lower by at least 1%. Lead decliners included Energy (NYSE: XLE), Materials (NYSE: XLB) and Communication Services (NYSE: XLC) falling over 2% and Information Technology (NYSE: XLK) and Consumer Discretionary (NYSE: XLY) dropping over 3%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) rose after 10-year U.S. Treasury yields jumped as high as 1.6% on Thursday. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against other global currencies, was up 0.27% in afternoon trading after falling as much as 0.26% to 89.677 earlier in the session. Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices fell to a near one-week low on Thursday as U.S. Treasury yields and better-than-expected U.S. economic data dimmed the yellow metal's appeal. Spot gold dropped 1.8% to $1,772.86 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures settled 1.3% lower at $1,775.40 per ounce. Crude oil futures ended mixed on Thursday as prices remained close to 13-month highs. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) declined 0.24% to $66.88 per barrel, while domestic index West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) rose 0.49% to settle at $63.53 each.
For Friday, market participants will turn their attention to fresh economic data on consumer spending, personal income, core inflation, and consumer sentiment.