U.S. stocks fell on Thursday, but closed well off session lows, as investors digested weak data out of China and rising oil prices while assessing the possibility of a Federal Reserve rate hike.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 184.25 points at its lows before closing about 45 points lower, with Goldman Sachs contributing the most losses. The index briefly broke below the 18,000 mark and hit its lowest level since July.
"It felt, to me, like we got a little over-extended to the downside earlier today," said Daniel Deming, managing director at KKM Financial. "We broke through a key technical level on the S&P at 2,120" on an intraday basis.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent, with financials falling 1.1 percent to lead decliners.
Energy stocks, meanwhile pared most of their losses as U.S. crude settled 0.52 percent higher at $50.44 per barrel as a drawdown in gasoline inventories offset a build in oil stockpiles.
"Oil initially sold off after the EIA inventories report and quickly turned around. Once it starter going higher, stocks stopped going down," said Adam Sarhan, CEO at Sarhan Capital.
The Nasdaq composite underperformed, falling approximately 0.5 percent. At session lows, the three major indexes traded more than 1 percent lower at session lows.
China exports tumbled 10 percent last month in dollar terms, while imports fell 1.9 percent. Asian equity markets closed mixed overnight, with mainland China's Shanghai composite ending flat and Honk Kong's Hang Seng index falling 1.61 percent.
Gold prices ended the U.S. day session moderately higher Thursday, supported by some more short covering in the futures market and perceived bargain-basement buying in the cash market. A weaker U.S. dollar index and on this day was also a bullish “outside market” element working in favour of the precious metals bulls.
Gold: $1257
HUI: + 1.5%
AUD Gold: $ 1661
