“Stocks eased off their session lows but were still sharply lower across the board in another volatile session Thursday as fears over a global economic slowdown intensified and ahead of the widely-followed monthly unemployment report,” JeeYeon Park reports for CNBC.

“The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged over 2 percent, led by Caterpillar and Alcoa, after rebounding from a deep selloff in the previous session to snap an eight-day losing streak,” Park reports. “The blue-chip index tumbled 372 points at its session low and is down for the 9th day in 10.”

Park reports, “The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also plummeted. The S&P entered its ‘correction territory,’ defined by a drop of 10 percent from its peak from its intraday high in May. Both the S&P and Nasdaq are currently trading in negative territory for the year.”

“On the economic front, weekly jobless claims were little changed last week, edging down to a seasonally adjusted 400,000, according to the Labor Department,” Park reports. “The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 9.2 percent… Adding to day’s woes, JPMorgan cut its third-quarter U.S. economic growth forecast by 1 percent, pointing to recent developments in the U.S. economy. The firm added that it doesn’t expect the Fed to raise interest rates until at least 2013.”

MacDailyNews Note: Shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) are currently down $7.65, or -1.95%, to $384.92.

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