S&P 500 Settles Lower; Market Volatility Declines Slightly

The Dow and the S&P 500 settled lower on Thursday, amid a decline in Walt Disney Co DIS shares after the company lost subscribers during the recent quarter.

PacWest Bancorp PACW shares also dipped around 23% after reporting a decline in deposits last week. Other regional bank stocks also recorded losses, with the KBW regional bank index dropping around 2.4% on Thursday.

On the economic data front, producer prices for final demand rose 0.2% month-over-month in April versus a revised 0.4% decline in the prior month. U.S. initial jobless claims, meanwhile, rose by 22,000 to 264,000 in the week ending May 6, above market estimates of 245,000.

Majority of the sectors on S&P 500 closed on a negative note, with energy and utilities stocks recording the biggest losses on Thursday. However, communication services and consumer discretionary stocks closed higher during the session.

The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.31% to close at 13,389.78 on Thursday, amid gains in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.

The S&P 500 fell 0.17%, while the Dow Jones lost 0.66% to 33,309.51 in the previous session.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) fell 0.1% to close at 16.93 on Thursday.

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.

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