Volatility In Markets Increases As Nasdaq Tumbles 200 Points

U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday, extending losses in afternoon trading following the release of several economic reports.

U.S. released better-than-expected data on retail sales on Thursday, while initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 213,000 in the week ended September 10th. However, US industrial production fell 0.2% from a month ago in August.

Shares of Adobe Inc. ADBE dropped around 17% on Thursday after the company released quarterly results and announced plans to buy Figma in a deal valued at around $20 billion.

Shares of Apple Inc AAPL and Amazon.com Inc AMZN closed lower on Thursday.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.71% to close at 11,927.49 on Thursday, while the S&P 500 declined 1.13%. The Dow Jones fell around 173 points to settle at 30,961.82 in the previous session.

Majority of the sectors on the S&P 500 closed on a lower note, with energy and utilities stocks recording the biggest decline on Thursday. Health care and financials stocks, however, bucked the overall market trend, recording gains on Thursday.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) climbed 5.1% to 27.49 points.

What is CBOE Volatility Index?

The CBOE Volatility Index, popularly known as VIX, is a measure of the equity market's expectation of volatility based on S&P 500 index call and put options.