Wall Street staged its worst decline since mid-March on Thursday following the Federal Reserve's grim outlook for the economy and a rise in coronavirus cases throughout numerous states. Investment sentiment dropped as market participants sold off stocks from all sectors in fear of a coming second wave of the coronavirus and potential shutdown measures that may need to be taken to contain it.
In addition, the Labor Department's unemployment claims report totaled 1.542 million for the week ended June 6, lower than the previous week but still stubbornly high. The report also upwardly revised the prior week's reading to 1.897 million and continuing unemployment for the week ended May 30 was slightly down to 20.929 million from 21.268 million the week before.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
In Major Stock News, the "reopening" sector--American
In Stock Sector News, every sector fell with the broader market during Thursday's slump. The performance losses were as follows: Energy -9.45%, Financials -8.18%, Materials -7.74%, Industrials -7.05%, Real Estate -6.26%, Information Technology -5.81%, Health Care -5.63%, Consumer Discretionary -4.91%, Communication Services -4.64%, Utilities -3.98% and Consumer Staples -3.81%.
In Commodity and Currency News, crude futures plummeted during Thursday's session as investors feared future demand would shrink following a second wave of the coronavirus. West Texas Intermediate
For Friday, investors will be looking back at coronavirus headlines as well as data on consumer sentiment for May.