The Dow Jones lost 1.54%, the Nasdaq index fell 2.84% and the Nasdaq index fell 2.11%.

After Wednesday's parenthesis, which saw renewed optimism and risk appetite, the S&P 500 plunged back to a new year-end low.

The broader index had not finished at this depth since November 2020.

“The market conditions are not very liquid at the moment,” commented Karl Haeling, of LBBW, to justify this abrupt reversal.

"There is so much volatility. People are a bit scared by what happened yesterday in the UK."

On Wednesday, the Bank of England surprised operators by announcing that it would launch, until mid-October, redemptions of sovereign debt securities in circulation in an attempt to stabilize the British bond market.

For Karl Haeling, Wall Street was also stirred by end-of-quarter portfolio adjustments, with many managers divesting massively from equities.

Edward Moya mentioned to him the influence of the statements of members of the American central bank (Fed), which almost all took up the voluntarist speech of their president, Jerome Powell, last week.

"We can't have a healthy economy and a healthy labor market if we don't bring back price stability," Cleveland Fed Chairman Loretta Mester told CNBC. believing that the current level of the Fed rate was not yet "restrictive", which means that it does not induce a slowdown in the economy, according to her.

This last point was taken up, also on Thursday, by his colleague from St. Louis James Bullard.

For the central banker, the interpretation of the markets according to which "a good number of rate hikes" will take place again this year is "the right one".

Already scalded, investors did not welcome the main indicator of the day, namely new jobless claims, which came out at their lowest since the end of April, at 193,000 applications, well below the 215,000 expected.

“Risk assets (including equities) have no chance of really rebounding if the economy continues to show resilience while inflation remains significantly above the Fed rate,” said Edward Moya.

Statements from central bankers and weak unemployment figures helped push bond yields back up after their slide the previous day.

The yield on 10-year US government bonds rose to 3.77%, from 3.73% on Wednesday.

The atmosphere was further darkened by the lowering of the recommendation of analysts from Bank of America for Apple (-4.91% to 142.48 dollars).

They cited slowing demand, which prompted Apple to lower its second-half iPhone sales targets.

Another downside, the hiring freeze at Meta (-3.67% to 136.41 dollars), announced internally Thursday by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

In general, the technology sector, at the party on Wednesday, was again sanctioned.

Alphabet (-2.63%), Nvidia (-4.05%) and Tesla (-6.81%) were particularly badly hit.

Three years after the launch of the Stadia online video game platform, which allows its users to play without the need for a console or computer, Google announced Thursday the permanent closure of the service in January.

Occidental Petroleum stood out (-1.14% to 62.11 dollars) after a stock market document revealed that Berkshire Hathaway (-0.98%), Warren Buffett's holding company had further increased its stake in the group petroleum, at 20.9%.

The chain of household goods and decoration Bed Bad & Beyond (-4.18% to 6.19 dollars) paid the publication of a quarterly turnover down 28% and below expectations.

The retailer defended its inventory reduction strategy during the period, which necessitated discounts.

The Rite Aid pharmacy network fell (-28.02% to 5.06 dollars) after lowering its profit target for its entire 2023 financial year, which will end at the end of February, citing a weakening of demand and supply difficulties.

© 2022 AFP