NEW YORK, New York - Stocks fell sharply on Thursday, ahead of Friday's nonfarm payrolls report. U.S. investors were dismayed with the week to 4 March's jobless claims rising more than expected, selling off bank stocks in particular.
Concern continues to focus on the direction of interest rates. "The Fed has changed the narrative that drove stocks higher for most of January and late December," Adam Sarhan, CEO of 50 Park Investments, told CNBC Thursday. "The market rallied on the assumption that the Fed would stop raising rates, would pause in the summer, or sometime in the near future. Powell made it very clear that's just not the case."
"The market is looking for a bullish catalyst, and it can't find one," Sarhan said.
The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite dived 2.05 percent or 237.65 points to 11,338.35.
The Dow Jones industrials plummeted 543.54 points or 1.66 percent to close Thursday at 32,254.86.
The Stnadrd and Poor's 500m fell 73.69 points or 1.85 percent to 3,918.32.
Foreign exchange markets were mixed Friday, with the majors rebounding, while the commodity bloc currencies remained flat to lower.
The euro bounced back to be fetching 1.0580 around the U.S. close Thursday.
The Japanese yen was sharply higher at 136.10, while the British pound made a solid recovery to 1.1920, a gain of more than a cent.
The Swiss franc jumped 0.73 percent to 0.9338.
The Canadian dollar however went into the opposite direction, falling sharply to 1.3828 by the U.S. close Thursday. The Australian dollar was little changed at 0.6587, as was the New Zealand dollar at 0.6103.
0.04% 0.0002On overseas equity markets, the FTSE 100 in London dropped 0.63 percent. The German Dax was flat, inching up just 0.01 percent. The Paris-based CAC 40 lost 0.12 percent.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 had a good day, rising 178.96 points or 0.63 percent to 28,623.15. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed a corresponding percentage amount, dropping 125.51 points to 19,925.74.
On mainland China, the Shanghai Composite drifted down 7.15 points or 0.22 percent to 3,276.09.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 edged up 3.30 points or 0.05 percent to 7,311.10, while the Australian All Ordinaries garnered 10.50 points or 0.14 percent, to close Thursday at 7,514.40.
The Singapore Straits Times fell 12.35 points or 0.38 percent to 3,214.51.
In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 lost 29.39 points or 0.25 percent to 11,826.15.
South Korea's Kospi Composite slipped 12.82 points or 0.53 percent to close Thursday at 2,419.09.
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