U.S. stocks reversed earlier gains, falling sharply in afternoon trade on Thursday, as investors looked into the the latest weekly jobless benefit claims report for signs of a weaker labor market, while awaiting Friday’s February employment data that could help decide how large an interest rate hike the Federal Reserve will impose at its next meeting in two weeks. How are stocks trading
The S&P 500
SPX,
-1.46%
dropped 30 points, or 0.8%, to 3,961
Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-1.30%
was off 218 points, or 0.7%, to 32,574
Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
-1.57%
declined by 112 points, or 1%, to 11,462
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished higher on Wednesday, with only the Dow finishing in the red, while all three indexes remained on track for weekly losses. A weekly drop for the S&P 500 would mark its fourth such pullback in five weeks.
What’s driving markets U.S. stocks trimmed earlier gains and extended losses on Thursday afternoon after trading modestly higher after the open when the latest weekly jobless claims data showed an unexpectedly large uptick in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits. The number of Americans who applied for u …