“Stocks extended their losses for a second day Thursday, dragged by health care and techs, after a batch of economic data that missed projections and mixed earnings reports,” JeeYeon Park reports for CNBC. “After Wednesday’s steep declines, stocks are on track for their worst weekly losses of the year. ‘You can tell equity investors are on edge and looking for a reason, almost any reason, to take a little money off the table,’ wrote Scott Wren, senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors. ‘A series of worse than expected economic reports out of China, Europe and the U.S. over the last handful of trading days has taken some of the enthusiasm out of the market.'”
“The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished in the red, led by UnitedHealth and Bank of America, while Verizon gained,” Park reports. “The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also closed lower. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, jumped above 17.”
Park reports, “Apple slid after the tech giant tumbled more than 5 percent in the previous session, breaking below $400 a share for the first time since December 2011, amid worries over second-quarter iPad mini shipments and after one of its suppliers reported an inventory glut that suggests iPhone sales may fall short of expectations. With Apple’s recent declines, oil company Exxon Mobil is once again the world’s most valuable company in terms of market cap.”
“On the economic front, weekly jobless claims gained 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 352,000, according to the Labor Department,” Park reports. “A Labor Department analyst said claims for California and Kentucky had been estimated.Economists polled by Reuters expected a reading of 350,000 new claims, up from 346,000 in the previous week.”
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