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
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
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
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
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.