Stocks ended sharply lower on Thursday as U.S. Treasury yields climbed higher, which led to another investor dump of technology stocks. All three major benchmarks slipped lower, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq underperforming, as market participants looked for direction amid worse-than-expected jobless claims and the Federal Reserve's loose monetary policy.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield jumped 11 basis points to 1.74% for the first time since January 2020 on Thursday, with investors reacting to the Fed's willingness to allow some inflation in the next few years.

Meanwhile, weekly unemployment claims unexpectedly jumped last week to 770,000, according to the Labor Department, despite more easing of social restrictions and recent warmer weather. The previous week's jobless claims were also upwardly revised to 725,000 from the 712,000 first reported. Continuing unemployment claims continued to decline for the ninth straight week, but totaled a less-than-expected 4.124 million.

Here's how the market settled on Thursday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): -1.48% or -58.62 points to 3,915.50

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): -0.46% or -153.00 points to 32,862.37

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -3.02% or -409.03 points to 13,116.17

For Stocks, bank stocks benefited from rising bond rates, with big banks--Bank of America (BAC  ), Citigroup (C  ), Goldman Sachs (GS  ), JPMorgan (JPM  ), Morgan Stanley (MS  ) and Wells Fargo (WFC  )--climbed higher. Conversely, megacap tech stocks dropped on climbing bond rates, with Amazon (AMZN  ), Apple (APPL  ) and Netflix (NFLX  ) declining over 3% and Tesla (TSLA  ) slipping nearly 7%.

For Sector Performance, almost every sector fell lower on Thursday, with only Financials (XLF  ) settling in positive territory at the session's close. Lead decliners were Communication Services (XLC  ), Consumer Discretionary (XLY  ), Information Technology (XLK  ) and Energy (XLE  ), with the latter falling over 4%.

For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP  ) climbed higher on Thursday as higher U.S. Treasury yields helped the greenback reverse either losses from the previous session. The dollar index, which tracks the currency against six others, was up 0.53% higher at 91.853, after dropping 0.56% to 91.30 earlier in the session. Gold (GLD  ) prices slipped on Thursday as higher bond yields and a stronger dollar lessoned the yellow metal's appeal. Spot gold was 0.7% lower at $1,732.99 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures settled down 0.3% at $1,732.50 per ounce. Crude oil futures plummeted lower on the firmer dollar and continued increases in U.S. crude and fuel inventories on Thursday. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) dropped 6.94% to $63.28 per barrel, while domestic index West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) plunged 7.12% lower at $60 per barrel.

For Friday, market participants will continue to digest the Federal Reserve's updated monetary policy as no now economic data is scheduled to be released.