US stocks close lower amid investor anxiety over higher rates

Thursday saw US stocks close lower again as losses mounted across the markets.

With CPI data showing inflation at 8.3% in April year-over-year, and near the 40-year high of 8.5% registered in March, investors on Wall Street had to contend with another choppy session. After seeing huge losses earlier on, the major indexes did pair most of the pain (although sell-off pressure remains high).

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Dow extends losing streak

In intraday deals, the S&P 500 fell as much as 1.8% to hit a new low for 2022 to see the benchmark index come close to sinking into the bear territory with 19% losses since its January highs. The S&P 500 ended the Thursday session 0.13% lower.

There were also huge declines for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which fell as much as 550 points, before paring most of these losses towards the bell. The index closed 103.81 points lower, or -0.33%, for its sixth consecutive day of losses.

As for the Nasdaq Composite, the negative sentiment in tech stocks helped slide it over 2% off the opening bell. However, a late relief aided the tech-heavy index to see it close just above the flatline at +0.06%. The index remains well into the bear market with -28% YTD.

Among individual stocks, a potential squeeze was likely behind intraday rallies for Lucid, GameStop and AMC Entertainment. Lucid Group Inc (NASDAQ: LCID) shares surged 13.20%; GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) rose 10.13% while AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE: AMC) ended the day 8.06% higher. Earlier on, the GME and AMC stocks had jumped by more than 20% each.

Robinhood Inc (NASDAQ: HOOD) shares jumped more than 30% in post-market trading after news that FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had bought a 7.6% stake in the trading app.

10-year Treasury yield retreats; dollar firms

The sell-off in the stock market has seen investors seek safety, with a scampering into bonds pulling the 10-year US Treasury yield lower. On Thursday, the benchmark yield retreated nearly 6 basis points to 2.857%.

Elsewhere, the dollar index firmed above 104 as the rally hurt gold and other precious metals. Spot gold fell 1.7% to around $1,821 per ounce, while Silver declined more than 4% to $20.66 per ounce.

In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin fell to lows of $26,597 before a slight recovery pushed its price to around $28,836 (at 4.30 pm ET).