US equities extended amid worries that the Federal Reserve’s attempt to rein in inflation will push the US economy into a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 236.94 pts or 0.75% to close at 31,253.13. The broader S&P 500 index fell 0.58%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.26%. The small-cap Russell 2000 gained 0.08%.
Mega cap tech stocks fell on Thu, including Apple (AAPL US, -2.46%), Microsoft (MSFT US, -0.37%), Alphabet (GOOGL US, -1.35%), and Meta Platforms (FB US, -0.49%). Amazon (AMZN US, +0.19%) and Nvidia (NVDA US, +1.10%) were exceptions. Apple previewed its mixed-reality headset to the board last week, indicating that development has reached an advanced stage.
Cisco (CSCO US, -13.73%) shares plummeted the most since 2011 after it warned that Chinese lockdowns and other supply disruptions would wipe out sales growth in the current quarter.
McDonald's (MCD US, -0.89%) will sell its Russian business to existing licensee Alexander Govor. The restaurants will operate under a new name.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped 4.70 basis points (bps) to 2.8370%, while the yield on the 2-year Treasuries fell 6.21 bps to 2.6073%. The iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG US) rose 0.67%.
The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed up $2.93 at US$112.04/bbl and $2.62 at US$112.21/bbl respectively.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 1.05% to 102.724.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Jun) contracts settled up $25.30, or 1.39%, at US$1,841.20/oz. July silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, rose 36.4 cents, or 1.69%, to end at US$21.908/oz.
European equity markets finished lower on Thur. The UK FTSE lost 1.82%, France's CAC 40 fell 1.26%, and the German DAX retreated 0.90%.