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U.S. stocks fell sharply on Thursday with the Dow dropping more than 500 points after data showed the U.S. economy contracted at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter amid mounting COVID-19 fallout.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 503 points, or 1.9 percent, at 26,036, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time (1400GMT), and the Nasdaq composite dropped 1 percent.
All the 11 primary SP 500 sectors dropped, with energy and financials both down more than 2 percent in morning trading, leading the losses.
U.S. real GDP plunged at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the second quarter amid mounting COVID-19 fallout, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday.
That's the steepest annualized decline in quarterly records dating back to 1947 and compares with analyst estimates for a 34.5 percent contraction, Bloomberg reported.
"'As expected' is the best that can be said about second quarter GDP. It was abysmal, but at least it was not a surprise," Chris Low, chief economist at FHN Financial, said in a note.
Looking ahead, Low said "weakness is likely to linger in business investment and state and local government spending, where cuts are already in the works."
Moreover, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to gauge layoffs, came in at 1.434 million, an increase of 12,000 from the prior week's revised level, the Department of Labor said on Thursday. The previous week's level was revised up to 1.422 million.
Investors were also awaiting quarterly results from big tech names with Apple, Amazon and Alphabet set to report later on Thursday.
