U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones index dipping more than 1,100 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 2.64% to 41,110.44 while the NASDAQ fell 4.15% to 16,870.74. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 3.14% to 5,492.92.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares rose by 0.8% on Thursday.

In trading on Thursday, information technology shares tumbled by 5.1%.

Top Headline

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 6,000 to 219,000 in the week ending March 29, compared to market estimates of 225,000.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 7.3% to $66.45 while gold traded down 2.8% at $3,077.00.

Silver traded down 7.8% to $31.95 on Thursday, while copper fell 3.3% to $4.8735.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 2.3%, Germany's DAX 40 dipped 2.3% and France's CAC 40 fell 3%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 1.5%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 1.5%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 dipping 2.77%, China's Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.24%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 1.52% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.42%.

Economics

• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 6,000 to 219,000 in the week ending March 29, compared to market estimates of 225,000.
• The U.S. trade deficit shrank to $122.7 billion in February compared to $130.7 billion in the previous month and versus market estimates of a $123.5 billion gap.

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