The broader market declined sharply on Thursday following remarks Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell made regarding the U.S. labor market and inflation expectations as the economy begins to reopen. Amid Thursday's sell-off, the Nasdaq turned negative for the year, now tracking a 1.3% loss as the tech-heavy index fell more than 10% from its recent 52-week high.
Powell stated during the Wall Street Journal Jobs Summit on Thursday that the economic reopening could "create some upward pressure on prices," adding to many investors worries about the recent spikes in 10-year U.S. Treasury yields. The 10-year yield jumped to 1.54% following Powell's remarks, sparking a sell-off as traders feared the rate will climb back to its recent high of 1.6%.
Meanwhile, weekly unemployment claims rose at a less-than-expected rate for the week ended Feb. 20, according to the Labor Department's latest report. Initial jobless claims totaled 745,000, coming in better than the 750,000 expected, but still worse that the prior week's upwardly revised total of 736,000.
Continuing jobless claims declined for the seventh week in a row to 4.295 million for the week ended Feb. 13. That total was in-line with what consensus economists expected, but declined from the 4.419 million reported during the previous week.
Here's how the market settled on Thursday:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Index
Nasdaq Composite Index
For Stocks, Square
For Sector Performance, sectors on the S&P 500 closed mostly lower, with only Communication Services
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar
For Friday, market participants will turn their attention to February jobs report as well as the updated unemployment rate for the Labor Department.