The US benchmarks slipped into negative territory just before the closing bell on Thursday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 299 points, or 0.85%, the S&P 500 retreated 1.07%, and the Nasdaq Composite went back 1.30%.
Halfway through the session, the Dow was around 430 points higher, or 1.22%, the S&P was near 1.43% in the green, while the Nasdaq was up approximately 2%.
Winners & losers: Auto shares tank
With rising Omicron cases around the globe, vaccine maker Pfizer is 0.95% higher, Moderna remains down at 3.76 % in the red, and Johnson & Johnson is 0.80% in decline.
In the technology sector, shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have plummeted 4.97%, while Nvidia dropped 3.66% and Intel backpedalled 2.95%.
While semi-conductor shortages slow auto production, shares of Ford have reversed 3.56% after the company was forced to temporarily shut down its assembly facility in Flat Rock, Michigan.
Shares of Toyota are down 0.47%. Today, a company spokesperson told Capital.com the automaker would miss production goals in 2022.
In other auto stock, shares of BMW are 2.15% lower, General Motors is down by 2.83%, while Tesla holds a slight gain 0.062% in the green.
Oil: Crudes match losses
Oil futures dropped slightly on Thursday as West Texas Intermediate crude slipped six cents, or around 0.1%, to end at $86.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while March Brent crude also lost six cents, or almost 0.1%, to settle at $88.38 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
In energy stock, shares of Hess are off 2.40%, while Exxon Mobil is up 0.19%.
Gold: Yellow metal falls
Gold futures went down during Thursday trading as February gold shed 60 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,842.60 an ounce.
Forex: Yield up slightly
On Thursday, one US dollar remains at $1.25 of the Canadian dollar and $0.88 of the euro, but has slipped to $0.73 of the Pound sterling, after equalling $0.74 of the currency earlier in the week.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up slightly from Wednesday at 1.829%.
