U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping over 100 points on Thursday.

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.38% to 33,356.06 while the NASDAQ fell 0.75% to 11,906.87. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.48% to 4,070.56.

Check This Out: Top 5 Utilities Stocks That You May Want To Dump In Q2

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Top Headline

U.S. jobless claims dropped by 18 thousand to 228 thousand in the week ending April 1.

Equities Trading UP

Equities Trading DOWN

Also Check This Out: Bitcoin Falls Below $28,000; Solar, Dogecoin Among Top Losers

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $80.01 while gold traded down 0.5% at $2,026.50.

Silver traded down 0.8% to $24.845 on Thursday while copper fell 0.1% to $3.9865.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.4%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.9% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.6%. The German DAX rose 0.2%, French CAC 40 rose 0.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.7%.

The S&P Global Eurozone construction PMI fell to 45.0 in March from 47.6 the previous month, while French construction PMI rose to 45.3 in March from 45.2 a month ago. The S&P Global/CIPS UK construction PMI fell to 50.7 in March from 54.6 in the prior month, while Italian construction PMI dropped to 47.4 in March from 48.9 a month ago. The S&P Global German construction PMI slipped to 42.9 in March from February’s reading of 48.6.

The Halifax house price index increased by 1.6% from a year ago in March, while industrial production in Germany rose 2% month-over-month in February.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping 1.22%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.28% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index adding 0.01%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.12%.

The Reserve Bank of India unexpectedly held its benchmark policy repo at 6.5% at its April meeting. The Caixin China general services PMI rose to 57.8 in March from 55.0 in the previous month, while S&P Global Hong Kong PMI fell to 53.5 in March. Australian trade surplus widened to AUD 13.87 billion in February from a revised AUD 11.27 billion in the previous month.

Economics

U.S. jobless claims dropped by 18 thousand to 228 thousand in the week ending April 1.

Now Read This: Check Out 3 High-Yielding Dividend Stocks In Defensive Sector From Wall Street's Most Accurate Analysts

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 106,305,770 cases with around 1,156,300 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,739,050 cases and 530,920 deaths, while France reported over 39,817,650 COVID-19 cases with 165,790 deaths. In total, there were at least 684,466,450 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,834,980 deaths.