Wall Street staged a sell off on Thursday as market participants were focused on the growing coronavirus crisis in the United States as well as a new rise in weekly jobless claims. Investment pessimism led to a sharp drop in big tech stocks, pulling the broader market lower. Market jitters were also raised after China hinted that it will announce countermeasures against the U.S. on Friday over its decision to close Beijing's consulate in Houston, Texas.
The labor department weekly jobless claims reported another 1.416 million filings for the week ended July 18, an untick from the 1.3 million reported the previous week. Thursday's reading marked the 18th straight week of unemployment claims topping one million. Continuing claims for the week ended July 11 totaled 16.197 million, down from the 17.304 million from the prior week. Analysts now fear the July's jobs report will show another wave of job losses brought by the resurgence of social restrictions in states with large coronavirus outbreaks.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
For Major Stock News, big tech drop again on Thursday: Amazon
For Sector Performance, most industries reversed course on Thursday, pulled down by market pessimism toward a speedy economic recovery. Only Consumer Staples +0.18%, Financials +0.18% and Utilities +0.11% gained. The rest of the sectors that settled with negative performance were as follows: Information Technology -2.63%, Consumer Discretionary -2.03%, Communication Services -1.95%, Real Estates -0.49%, Health Care -0.41%, Industrials -0.34%, Materials -0.26% and Energy -0.21%.
For Commodity and Currency, crude oil futures dropped on Thursday as the investors feared the coronavirus crisis will lead to more demand declines. Brent Crude
As the market enters its final trading day, investors will focus on news surrounding U.S.-China relations as well as earnings from companies like Honeywell
