U.S. stocks plunged in choppy trading on Thursday as fears of slower economic growth rattled investors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 969.58 points, or 3.58 percent, to 26,121.28. The S&P 500 fell 106.18 points, or 3.39 percent, to 3,023.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index erased 279.49 points, or 3.10 percent, to 8,738.60.
Shares of United Technologies slid 9 percent and Boeing sank 8 percent, leading the laggards in the Dow.
All the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended lower, with industrials and financials down 4.96 percent and 4.88 percent, respectively, the two worst-performing groups.
The market wiped out most of the gains scored on Wednesday when the 30-stock ended up 1,173 points.
U.S. equities have been in roller-coaster trading this week as market volatility remains high. On Tuesday, the Dow slumped more than 780 points despite the Federal Reserve's emergency interest-rate cut, following a nearly 1,300 points gain in the prior session.
On the data front, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, stood at 216,000 in the week ending Feb. 29, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's unrevised level, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday.
