The US markets ended lower on Thursday amid a continued increase in treasury yields, which led to renewed concerns about interest rates despite Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's assurances of ultra-easy monetary policy for the foreseeable future. The yields on ten-year notes and thirty-year bonds once again rose to their highest levels in a year, with the ten-year yield briefly spiking above 1.6 percent in intraday trading. The increase in yields came following the release of a batch of largely upbeat US economic data, including a report from the Labor Department showing a steep drop in first-time claims for US unemployment benefits in the week ended February 20th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims tumbled to 730,000, a decrease of 111,000 from the previous week's revised level of 841,000. Street had expected jobless claims to drop to 838,000 from the 861,000 originally reported for the previous week. The Commerce Department also released a report showing new orders for US manufactured durable goods spiked by much more than expected in the month of January. The report said durable goods orders soared by 3.4 percent in January after jumping by an upwardly revised 1.2 percent in December. Street had expected durable goods orders to surge up by 1.1 percent compared to the 0.5 percent increase that had been reported for the previous month.
Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 559.85 points or 1.75 percent to 31,402.01, Nasdaq dropped 478.54 points or 3.52 percent to 13,119.43, and S&P 500 was down by 96.09 points or 2.45 percent to 3,829.34.
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