U.S. Stocks Turn Lower After Seeing Early Strength

(RTTNews) - After moving mostly higher early in the session, stocks have shown a notable downturn over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The major averages have pulled back well off their highs of the session and into negative territory.

The major averages have climbed off their worst levels in recent trading but currently remain in the red. The Dow is down 159.19 points or 0.5 percent at 32,885.90, the Nasdaq is down 33.11 points or 0.3 percent at 11,473.96 and the S&P 500 is up 10.27 points or 0.3 percent at 3,980.78.

The early strength on Wall Street may have reflected bargain hunting following recent weakness, with the Dow and the S&P 500 bouncing off their lowest closing levels in a month.

Buying interest waned shortly after the start of trading, however, as interest rate concerns continue to hang over the markets following yesterday's release of the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting.

The Fed minutes offered few surprised but reiterated that the central bank will continue to raise interest rates in its battle against inflation.

With the Fed warning about the impact of labor market tightness, negative sentiment may also have been generated in reaction to a Labor Department report showing an unexpected dip in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended February 18th.

The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 192,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level of 195,000.

The dip surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 200,000 from the 194,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Meanwhile, revised data released by the Commerce Department showed the U.S. economy grew by slightly less than previously estimated in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Sector News

Telecom stocks have shown a significant move to the downside over the course of the session, dragging the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index down by 2.0 percent to its lowest intraday level in well over a month.

Considerable weakness has also emerged among gold stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index.

The weakness in the gold sector comes amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal, with gold for April delivery falling $14.20 to $1,827.30 an ounce.

On the other hand, semiconductor stocks continue to turn in a strong performance on the day, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up by 2.0 percent.

Nvidia (NVDA) continues to post a standout gain after the chipmaker reported better than expected fourth quarter results and provided upbeat revenue guidance for the current quarter.

Notable strength also remains visible among oil service stocks, which are rebounding along with the price of crude oil.

With crude for April delivery jumping $1.42 to $75.37 a barrel, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index is up by 1.5 percent.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Thursday, with the Japanese markets closed for a holiday. China's Shanghai Composite Index edged down by 0.1 percent, while South Korea's Kospi advanced by 0.8 percent.

The major European markets also finished the day mixed. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.5 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved higher over the course of the session after seeing early weakness. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down 2.9 basis points at 3.894 percent.