US stocks tumble amid trade jitters
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E-mail Xinhua, May 24, 2019
U.S. stocks extended losses on Thursday as Wall Street was worried that intensifying trade tensions may slow global economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 286.14 points, or 1.11 percent, to 25,490.47. The S&P 500 fell 34.03 points, or 1.19 percent, to 2,822.24. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 122.56 points, or 1.58 percent, to 7,628.28.
All the three major indexes opened sharply lower on Thursday. The Dow plunged more than 400 points at its lows during the session as United Technologies and IBM underperformed.
Nine of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors retreated at the close, with energy down 3.13 percent, the worst-performing group.
Stocks of major U.S. tech giants or the FAANG group of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet, all closed lower. Technology sector pulled back 1.73 percent.
Major chipmaker stocks, including Lam Research and Qualcomm, continued to be under pressure.
VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH), which tracks the overall performances of major U.S. exchange-listed companies in the semiconductor industry, closed 1.66 percent lower.
The Cboe Volatility index, widely considered the best fear gauge in the stock market, climbed 14.71 percent to 16.92 on Thursday.
On the economic front, the seasonally adjusted IHS Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) registered 50.6 in May, down from 52.6 in April, marking the lowest level since September 2009, data from the research firm showed on Thursday. The reading missed market estimates.
U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, stood at 211,000 in the week ending May 18, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised level, the Labor Department reported.
"Today we saw a lot of negative news. Europe showed signs of a soft economy. Trade talks had nothing good to add. And U.S. manufacturing indicators showed a slight slowdown," John Monaco, an experienced trader at New York Stock Exchange, told Xinhua.
"The technology and energy sectors are being sold the most. Again, I attribute this to the fact that traders are selling to gain profits from the large run up in those sectors," he added.
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