The Dow fell 236.94 points, or 0.75%, to 31253.13; The NASDAQ fell 29.66 points, or 0.26%, to 11388.50; The S & P 500 index fell 22.89 points, or 0.58%, to 3900.79. Cisco fell 13.7%, becoming the Dow component with the largest decline. The company's third quarter results were lower than market expectations, and issued a quarterly performance warning.
On Wednesday and Thursday, U.S. stocks fell one after another, making it possible for both S & P and Nasdaq to record a seventh consecutive week of decline. At present, the S & P 500 index is on the verge of a bear market. If the index closes below 3837.25 - down more than 20% from its recent high, it will enter a technical bear market.
The recent financial report of large retailers has seriously dampened market sentiment. Some of the world's largest retailers have issued severe warnings, highlighting the severe consequences of soaring inflation.
On Thursday, Kerr department store, a US retail company, reported that the adjusted earnings per share and net sales in the first quarter were lower than expected, the net revenue fell 5.2% year-on-year, and the guidance on annual revenue and earnings per share was lowered.
Before Cole's department store, the financial reports of Wal Mart, target and other large retailers exploded one after another, reflecting the surge in enterprise operating costs caused by soaring inflation, which makes investors worry that the rise of inflation pressure in the future may further hit U.S. consumer spending and enterprise performance, and lead to economic recession.
Robert Alster, chief investment officer of close brothers asset management, said: "the disappointing data released by target and Wal mart are really, really creepy. We will now see a sharp reduction in U.S. GDP... It seems that our economy is slowing faster than we expected."
Several Wall Street organizations discussed the possibility of the U.S. economy entering recession. At present, Goldman Sachs strategists believe that the probability of the U.S. economy falling into recession in the next two years is as high as 35%. Morgan Stanley believes that the probability of U.S. recession in the next 12 months is 25%. Wells Fargo said the United States would experience a "slight recession" from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023.
In addition, the policy path of the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hike to control inflation has also exacerbated investors' concerns. On Tuesday, Fed chairman Colin Powell announced that there should be no doubt about the Fed's determination to control the hottest inflation in 40 years, even if it may push up the unemployment rate.
Powell also said that although he hoped that the Fed could curb high inflation without stimulating a sharp rise in unemployment, from the perspective of modern economic experience, this result is almost impossible to achieve.
In terms of economic data on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of first-time jobless claims increased by 21000 to 218000 in the week ended May 14. The median expectation of the analysts surveyed was 200000.
As of May 7, the number of people who continued to apply for unemployment benefits fell to 1.32 million, the lowest level since 1969.
Although the continuous application data highlights that the labor market is still stable, the continuous rise in the number of initial applicants may indicate some degree of weakness. As the Fed tightens monetary policy more aggressively to combat high inflation, rising interest rates are expected to reduce labor demand.
Another data shows that the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing index in May was 2.6, estimated at 15, compared with 17.6.
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BofA securities will Apple The target price was lowered from $215 to $200.
Cole's net revenue in the first quarter fell 5.2% year-on-year to $3.47 billion, and adjusted EPS fell 90% to 11 cents. The company lowered the annual revenue growth guideline from 2% - 3% to 1%, and the adjusted EPS guideline from $7-7.50 to $6.45-6.85.
Cisco reported that its third quarter results were lower than market expectations and expected an unexpected decline in sales this quarter. For the quarter ended April 30, the company earned 87 cents per share. Revenue was $12.8 billion, lower than analysts' consensus expectation of $13.34 billion.
Cisco expects adjusted earnings per share in the fourth quarter to be 76 cents to 84 cents, with revenue down 1% to 5.5% year-on-year. Analysts had expected the company's earnings per share to be 92 cents and revenue to be $13.87 billion in the next quarter, up about 6% year-on-year.
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that Boeing's starliner was ready for the second test mission to dock with the international space station this week.
In addition, Boeing announced on Thursday that it had reached an agreement with British airline parent international aviation group (IAG) to sell 50 737 Max aircraft. It is reported that the agreement includes 25 Boeing 737-8200 aircraft and 25 Boeing 737-10 aircraft.
In a tweet to Martin viecha, senior director of investor relations at Tesla, Liao Kaiyuan, a Singaporean Chinese tycoon, said Tesla should immediately announce that it plans to buy back $5 billion of shares this year and $10 billion next year. As of Thursday's close, Tesla's share price had fallen nearly 33% this year.
American Airlines issued a statement on Thursday calling on shareholders to ignore JetBlue's malicious takeover proposal. Spirit Airlines said that because the merger between the company and JetBlue airlines may encounter antitrust problems, JetBlue Airlines only tried to "maliciously block" the merger between the company and Frontier Airlines through pricing.
In other markets, the price of gold futures for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $25.30, or 1.4%, to close at $1841.20 an ounce, the largest one-day percentage increase since April 12. Silver futures for July delivery rose 1.7% to close at $21.908 an ounce.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil (WTI) for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $2.62, or 2.4%, to $112.21 a barrel.
The most actively traded contract, July WTI futures, rose $2.89, or 2.7%, to close at $109.89 a barrel.
As the benchmark of global crude oil price, the price of July Brent crude oil futures on the European Intercontinental Exchange rose $2.93, or 2.7%, to close at $112.04 a barrel.
June gasoline futures rose 3% to close at $3.832 a gallon. At the beginning of this week, the futures price hit an all-time high.