WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After failing to sustain an initial move to the upside, stocks have come under pressure over the course of the trading session on Thursday. The major averages have pulled back well off their highs of the session, with the Nasdaq recently joining the Dow and S&P 500 in negative territory.
The major averages have seen further downside in recent trading, falling to new lows for the session. The Dow is down 565.49 points or 1.4 percent at 39,105.55, the S&P 500 is down 33.08 points or 0.6 percent at 5,273.93 and the Nasdaq is down 42.13 points or 0.3 percent at 16,759.41.
The initial strength on Wall Street came as tech stocks rallied following upbeat quarterly results from Nvidia (NVDA), with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 reaching new record highs.
Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) surged after the AI darling reported better than expected fiscal first quarter results and provided upbeat guidance.
Nvidia also announced a ten-for-one stock split of its common stock and increased its quarterly cash dividend by 150 percent to $0.10 per share.
Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as concerns about the outlook for interest rates continue to hang over the broader markets following yesterday's slightly hawkish Fed minutes.
With the minutes signaling rates are likely to remain higher for longer than previously expected, the chances rates will be lower by September have fallen to 57.3 percent, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool.
Potentially adding to the rate concerns, the Labor Department released a report this morning showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by more than expected in the week ended May 18th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims slid to 215,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week's revised level of 223,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 220,000 from the 222,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Sector News
Networking stocks continued to see substantial weakness on the day, resulting in a 2.7 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.
Substantial weakness also remains visible among gold stocks, as reflected by the 2.3 percent slump by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index.
The weakness in the gold sector comes amid an extended pullback by the price of the precious metal, with gold for June delivery plummeting $55.40 to $2,337.50 an ounce.
Interest rate-sensitive utilities and commercial real estate stocks are also seeing considerable weakness, moving notably lower along with airline, banking and biotechnology stocks.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1.3 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index tumbled by 1.3 percent.
The major European markets also finished the day mixed after seeing early strength. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.4 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index both inched up by 0.1 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have come under pressure, extending a recent downward trend. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 4.7 basis points at 4.481 percent.
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