Midnight Trader | Jul 31, 2014 04:52PM ET
The U.S. stock markets staggered to steep declines Thursday, finishing near their session lows in a sell-off that erased all of July's gains for the Dow 30 and the S&P 500. There was no one catalyst triggering the sell-off, with investors giving in to negative sentiment over ongoing geo-political conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, the Argentine credit situation, as well as a batch of largely disappointing company earnings and mixed economic data.
It was the first monthly decline for the S&P 500 since January. All 10 sectors in the broad market gauge declined at least 1.7% as a group, with the steepest fall for energy stocks accompanying a sharp fall for front-month crude-oil futures.
Economic data was somewhat downbeat. The Labor Department reported a larger-than-expected rise of 23,000 to 302,000 in first-time jobless claims while the Chicago purchasing managers index falling to a 52.6 reading, well under the 63.2 reading Wall Street was expecting. The government Friday will issue its monthly non-farm payrolls report for July.
Commodities were mixed. Crude Oil for September delivery plunged Thursday, settling $2.10 lower at $98.17 per barrel while September Natural Gas rose 6 cents to finish at $3.84 per 1 million BTU. December Gold declined $13.80 to $1,283.10 per ounce while September Silver slid 18 cents to $20.41 per ounce. September Copper fell 1 cent to $3.23 per pound.
h3 Here's where the U.S. markets stood at the end-of-day/h3GLOBAL SENTIMENT
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