Market benchmarks took a dive on Thursday, giving back gains after ending another record session the day prior. While there was no definitive trigger to the sell-off, the session's dip was a dramatic reversal of the bullish moves seen at the beginning of the week. Many market strategists were not surprised though, stating that the rapid tech momentum would eventually need to meet an area leveling off.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department's new weekly jobless claims for the week ended August 29 fell more than expected to a total of 881,000, well below the 950,000 expected. This was the second time since the coronavirus-induced financial crisis that the weekly unemployment total came under 1 million claims. However, Thursday's report was totaled under a new tallying system, which was expected to lower the level of claims reported.

Here's how the market settled on Thursday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): -3.51% or -125.81 points to 3,455.03

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): -2.78% or -807.77 points to 28,292.73

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -4.96% or -598.34 points to 11,458.10

For Major Stock News, the S&P 500 tech sector dropped 5.83% in its first losing session in 11; mega-cap tech stocks declined: Amazon (AMZN  ), Apple (AAPL  ), Facebook (FB  ), Google (GOOGL  ), Microsoft (MSFT  ) and Netflix (NFLX  ). Tesla (TSLA  ) shares also steeply fell. However, reopening trades bounced amid the sell off: American Airlines (AAL  ), Carnival (CCL  ), Delta (DAL  ), Kohl's (KSS  ), Macy's (M  ), Nordstrom (JWN  ), Norwegian Cruise (NCLH  ), Royal Caribbean (RCL  ), Southwest (LUV  ) and United Airlines (UAL  ).

For Sector Performance, every industry fell during Thursday's sell off. The negative performance declines were as follows: Information Technology -5.83%, Consumer Discretionary -3.56%, Communication Services -3.35%, Industrials -2.80%, Materials -2.78%, Health Care -2.74%, Consumer Staples -1.89%, Real Estate -1.64%, Financials -1.58%, Utilities -1.26%, Energy -0.67%.

For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP  ) continued its gain on Thursday as investors began to bet on the greenback as concerns surrounding the euro rose. The dollar index was up 0.3% against several global currencies. Gold (GLD  ) prices slipped to a near one-week low as more positive economic data injected more optimism into riskier trades. Spot gold was down 0.6% to $1,930.58 per ounce, after dropping as low as $1,926.99. Gold futures settled 1.7% lower at $1,944.70. Crude oil futures also fell as stubborn unemployment data warned of a slow recovery for the economy. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) dropped 0.7% to settle at $44.13 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) slipped 0.34% to price at $41.37 per barrel.

For Friday, investors are bracing for the Friday release of August's U.S. jobs report, which consensus economists estimate to be an addition of about 1 million jobs.