The US markets ended lower on Thursday. Initially, markets showed significant move towards upside with tech-heavy Nasdaq surging 2.6 percent, while the S&P 500 and the Dow gaining 1.9 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. The initially strength came amid a positive reaction to highly anticipated earnings news from market leader and AI darling Nvidia. However, buying interest waned and markets turned negative as the session progressed. The downturn by the broader markets may have reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of the Labor Department's long-delayed report on employment in the month of September. The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 119,000 jobs in September after a revised dip of 4,000 jobs in August. Meanwhile, street had expected employment to rise by 50,000 jobs compared to the addition of 22,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. At the same time, the report said the unemployment rate crept up to 4.4 percent in September from 4.3 percent in August. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged. The mixed data may have further eroded investors’ confidence that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates by another quarter point in December.

On sectoral front, computer hardware stocks extended the sharp pullback seen over the past several sessions, dragging the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index down by 8.8 percent to its lowest closing level in over a month. Substantial weakness was also visible among gold stocks, as reflected by the 5.4 percent nosedive by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The sell-off by gold stocks came amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal.

Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 386.51 points or 0.84 percent to 45,752.26, S&P 500 plunged 103.40 points or 1.56 percent to 6,538.76 and Nasdaq plummeted 486.18 points or 2.16 percent to 22,078.05.