After showing substantial volatility throughout the trading session, stocks ended Thursday's trading sharply lower following a late day sell-off. With traders reacting to disappointing economic data, the major averages all ended the session at multi-year closing lows.
The major averages all closed firmly in negative territory, with the Dow and the Nasdaq ending the day at their worst closing level since March of 2003 while the S&P 500 ended the session at its lowest closing level since April of 1997.
Stocks showed a substantial decline in early trading following the release of a report from the Labor Department showing that first-time claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly jumped to a sixteen-year high last week.
The report showed that jobless claims for the week ended November 15th rose to 542,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 515,000. With the increase, jobless claims rose to their highest level since spiking to 564,000 in July of 1992.
Commenting on the data, Chris Low, Chief Economist for FTN Financial said, "Back-to-back 500,000-plus readings in claims in the first half of November suggest the very real possibility of a 6.8 percent unemployment rate and a 400,000 net job loss."
Selling pressure waned not long after the open, however, and the markets moved back to the upside as traders went bargain hunting. Reports that a group of senators had reached a compromise on a bailout of the three big U.S. automakers contributed to the recovery.
Nonetheless, stocks turned lower after the Democratic leaders said that there would be no vote on a bailout for the automakers this week. Some reports have suggested that the bailout could be delayed until the new presidential administration takes office in January.
Stocks subsequently accelerated to the downside in the latter part of the trading day, with the major averages continually taking out their lows for the session.
The Dow finished the session down 444.99 points or 5.6 percent at 7,552.29, while the Nasdaq closed down 70.30 points or 5.1 percent at 1,316.12 and the S&P 500 closed down 54.14 points or 6.7 percent at 752.44.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region tumbled on Thursday after U.S. stocks hit their lowest levels in more than five years overnight. The Japanese market showed a notable decline, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 index closing down 6.9 percent.
The major European markets also came under considerable selling pressure, although they moved off their lows going into the close. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index finished the session down 3.3 percent after falling as much as 4.5 percent.
Meanwhile, treasuries saw substantial strength, as traders flocked to the safety of government-back bonds following the release of the weak economic data. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note closed down 24.7 basis points at 3.144 percent, a five-year closing low.
By the end of the trading day, nearly all of the major sectors were showing substantial declines, reflecting broad based weakness. Energy stocks turned in some of the market's worst performances amid a steep drop in energy prices.
Among energy stocks, oil service stocks posted particularly steep losses, contributing to a 15.9 percent loss by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index. With the loss, the index ended the session at a four-year closing low.
The weakness among oil service stocks came amid a steep drop by the price of oil, with crude for December delivery falling $4 to $49.62 a barrel amid concerns about the outlook for demand. This marks the first time that the price of oil has closed below $50 a barrel since March of 2005.
Concerns about the outlook for demand also contributed to significant weakness among steel stocks, as reflected by the 12.9 percent loss posted by the Amex Steel Index, which ended the session at an all-time closing low.
Healthcare provider stocks also came under considerable selling pressure, resulting in a 10.9 percent loss by the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Provider Index. The loss extended a recent downward move by the index, which ended the session at an eight-year closing low.
Among healthcare provider stocks, Community Health Systems (CYH), Health Management Associates (HMA), and Tenet Healthcare (THC) posted notable losses. Shares of Amedisys (AMED) also closed lower after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to Hold from Buy.
As mentioned above, most other sectors also showed notable downward moves, with some financial, health insurance, and chemical stocks posting significant losses.
Citigroup (C) turned in one of the financial sector's worst performances, with the financial services giant closing down 26.4 percent, at its worst closing level in over a decade.
The loss by Citigroup came despite reports that Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal plans to increase his holdings in Citigroup back to 5 percent from his current stake of less than 4 percent.
Shares of JP Morgan (JPM) also saw significant weakness, extending a recent downward move. JP Morgan ended the session down 17.9 percent, at a five-year closing low.
On the other hand, shares of General Motors closed up 3.2 percent, although they ended the session well off their best levels of the day. With the gain, GM bounced off the multi-decade closing low that it set in the previous session.
Trading on Friday may be impacted by reaction to the release of quarterly results from Dell (DELL), Gap (GAP), and AutoDesk (ADSK) after the close of trading today as well as the release of Heinz' (HNZ) quarterly results before the start of trading.
Additionally, while there are no major economic reports due to be released on Friday, traders are likely to keep an eye on comments from Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Charles Plosser, who is taking part in a conference on the financial crisis.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.