The CBOE Volatility Index, often referred to as Wall Street’s fear gauge, decreased 2.97 percent to end at 15.05 Thursday.
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In other markets, oil prices continued to fall as the market expected global supplies exceeded demand.
USA stocks drifted lower on the eve of the highly anticipated jobs report, seen as a litmus test for a Federal Reserve increase in interest rates. “I still think there’s a lot of people that doubt the market and they’re still skittish and don’t believe the rally or think they ought to be in bonds”. Qualcomm QCOM.O weighed the most on the S&P 500, falling 15.3 percent to $51.07 after the chipmaker forecast first-quarter profit below expectations.
At mid-day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 48.91 points, or 0.27 percent, to 17,818.67 on Thursday, Xinhua reported. “We have had in the past month… a very strong market, a very sharp rebound, and that’s also probably causing a few profit taking more than you might expect from the news that’s out there”, said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management in New York.
Seven of the 10 major S&P sectors finished lower.
Dow components JPMorgan and Visa were up 0.9 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
The utilities group .SPLRCU dropped 0.8 percent and materials .SPLRCM declined 0.5 percent.
Facebook’s shares rose 4.3 percent to $108.41 premarket, set to open at a record high, after the company’s quarterly results beat estimates. The contract slumped $1.58, or 3.3 percent, to close at $46.32 a barrel on Wednesday as Yellen’s comments pushed up the dollar. Expedia was up 3.6 percent at $139.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,659 to 1,367, for a 1.21-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,545 issues fell and 1,188 advanced for a 1.30-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.
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“This is more single stocks driving the broad market, which is kind of a nice change of pace”, said Justin Wiggs, managing director in equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus.
