The S&P 500 erased its small year-to-date gains in trading as the benchmark index, and the Dow, suffered their worst one-day loss in six weeks.
It was also an ugly session for commodities; gold fell to another five-year low, and copper dropped to a six-year low.
First, the scoreboard:
- Dow: 17,504.63, -197.59, (-1.12%)
- S&P 500: 2,053.91, -21.09, (-1.02%)
- Nasdaq: 5,025.92, -41.10, (-0.81%)
And now, Thursday's top stories:
- Amid today's drops in commodity prices, Barclays latest global economic outlook noted that prices are not likely to rebound any time soon. The combination of weak global demand, oversupply, and the strong dollar are what have pushed down commodity prices, they wrote. And those things have not gone anywhere. They wrote, "Although we do not expect any further significant declines in oil, copper or gold prices, the prospect of the type of v-shaped rebound that has characterized recent recoveries looks slim. The bottom has probably been reached, but the stay in a markedly lower range is likely to prove a long one."
- Crude oil fell more than 3%. West Texas Intermediate crude futures in New York dropped to as low as $41.59 per barrel. The Energy Information Administration's data showed that crude stockpiles rose by 4.2 million barrels last week. It was the seventh straight period in which inventories rose.
- Credit Suisse published its 2016 outlook, including firm's top-ten trades. They include buying the dollar instead of the euro and Swiss franc, going long European stocks, and selling 5-year treasuries. BI Australia's Greg McKenna has the rest of the list here. Credit Suisse said "the coming year is likely to prove to be a watershed in global economic history." The new year will see the Fed normalizing interest rates as its peers tighten monetary policy.
- GoPro shares dropped 7% and below the IPO price of $24 for the first time. The stock fell to as low as $23.10 a share. Investors who bought early when the company went public last June are essentially flat, or negative, on paper. Year-to-date, shares are down 63%. Several analysts have recently written about the new Hero 4 Session model, which saw weaker-than-expected demand. Third-quarter earnings also came in below expectations.
- In economic data, initial jobless claims were unchanged last week from the prior period at 276,000. Economists had estimated a drop by 6,000. The four-week moving average of claims rose 5,000 to 267,750, still near a 42-year low.
- And, job openings rose to 5.5 million in September, beating forecasts, while hiring fell to 5.05 million from 5.08 million. The quits rate, which gauges workers' confidence in finding new jobs, was 1.9% for a sixth straight month.