By Victor Reklaitis and Anora Mahmudova, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks tumbled Thursday, giving
up all of the prior day's big jump, which was the largest one-day
advance of the year.
The S&P 500 (SPX) was last down 33 points, or 1.7%, to
1,936. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) slid 286 points, or
1.7%, to 16,709 after briefly being down as much as 303 points. The
blue-chip index rose 275 points on Wednesday, while the S&P
jumped by 34 points.
The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) was down 74 points, or 1.7%, at
4,395.
The blame for Thursday's slide went in part to disquieting
comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, while
others said stocks just got ahead of themselves with Wednesday's
big rally.
Draghi said "Europe's problems are structural, not cyclical, and
without reforms there can be no recovery. I think this is weighing
a bit on the market," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist
at Rockwell Global Capital. (Read more: Draghi doesn't take new
steps
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2014/10/09/live-blog-and-video-of-draghi-and-fischer-discussing-europe/.)
Activist investor Carl Icahn also said on CNBC that a market
correction is "definitely coming" and that he's hedging his stock
bets by shorting the S&P 500.
"What we're seeing is profit-taking from yesterday's trading
,where we saw nearly 2% gains, and I think that was a bit
overdone," explained Craig Erlam, market analyst at Alpari U.K.
"We've seen massive rallies off those Fed minutes, which weren't
exactly the most dovish thing we've ever heard, and there was no
real change in policy."
All 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down with
declines in Goldman Sachs (GS) , Visa (V) and Chevron (CVX)
weighing heavily on the price-weighted index.
Government data showed the number of people applying for
unemployment benefits was below 300,000 for the fourth week in a
row.
Investors are hearing speeches from several Federal Reserve
officials Thursday, a day after investors sent stocks soaring as
minutes released from the central bank's September meeting appeared
to quell any fears that interest rates might be raised sooner.
Fed watch: Six U.S. central bankers will be speaking Thursday,
including Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer and Gov. Daniel
Tarullo, both voting members on the Fed's interest-rate-setting
committee. Minutes from that committee's September meeting,
released Wednesday, highlighted concerns among members over the
medium-term impact of the stronger dollar and slower growth among
some of the U.S.'s major trading partners.
Need to Know: A call to short chip makers in the face of a scary
triple-top market.
Stocks to watch: PepsiCo Inc. shares (PEP) rose 0.5%, with the
beverage and snack giant reporting third-quarter profit and sales
results that beat expectations.
Alcoa Inc. shares (AA) fell 4.4% in regular trading after the
aluminum producer's third-quarter earnings came in higher than Wall
Street's estimate.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) suppliers have delayed plans to mass produce a
larger-screen tablet to early next year, according to a Wall Street
Journal report. Carl Icahn's promised letter to Apple arrived
before the opening bell, as well; it was titled "Sale: Apple Shares
at Half Price." Apple shares gained 0.6%.
Google Inc.'s (GOOG) tax deal in France is being challenged,
according to a Wall Street Journal report. Shares fell 1.8%.
Other markets: In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Average fell as the yen
strengthened against the greenback. Gold prices (GCZ4)surged, while
oil futures (CLX4) dropped.
MarketWatch's Carla Mozee in London contributed to this
article.
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