Dow tumbles 255 points amid new lockdowns and sluggish stimulus progress
- US stocks fell on Thursday as hopes of a fiscal stimulus deal before the November elections declined.
- Additionally, concerns about rising daily COVID-19 cases and a new wave of lockdowns in Europe hurt global stocks.
- An uptick in weekly US jobless claims also didn't help stocks on Thursday; the 898,000 new unemployment filings surpassed economists' estimates.
- Watch major indexes update live here.
US stocks fell on Thursday as hopes for a fiscal stimulus deal before the November elections declined.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are set to continue talks on Thursday, but a sticking point remains on a national testing strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rising daily COVID-19 cases have hurt investor sentiment lately, and a new wave of lockdowns in Europe has not helped. France announced curfews in Paris and other cities, while the UK will impose restrictions on people's movements in various parts of the country.
Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET market open on Thursday:
- S&P 500: 3,456.60, down 0.9%
- Dow Jones industrial average: 28,258.68, down 0.9% (255 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 11,652.50, down 1%
Weekly jobless claims in the US for the week that ended on Saturday came in at 898,000, surpassing analysts' estimates of 825,000 and representing an uptick from the prior week's adjusted reading of 845,000.
Third-quarter earnings from the major US banks wrapped up on Thursday, as Morgan Stanley beat analysts' estimates on a surge in trading revenue.
Members of the K-pop band BTS likely became multimillionaires as their record label's initial public offering led to a quick doubling of the share price.
Gold fell as much as 0.6%, to $1,889.71 per ounce.
Oil traded lower. West Texas Intermediate crude fell as much as 4.4%, to $39.22 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, fell 4.1%, to $41.56 per barrel, at intraday highs.