U.S. Markets See Broad-Based Selloff On Thursday

New York, NY (AHN) - U.S. markets sold off across the board Thursday as all three major indices dropped 2 percent for the session while oil reversed its slide to add $1.05 a barrel.

The Dow Jones Industrial average shed 283 points or 2.4 percent as 26 of 30 Dow components moved lower. General Motors was the main laggard, down 11 percent on the session.

The S&P 500 fell 29.5 points or 2.3 percent as the financial sector, down 6.7 percent, helped drag the index lower. Some of the big laggards in the financial space were Citigroup and AIG, down 9.8 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively.

The big tech names weighed on the Nasdaq Composite, down 46 points or 1.97 percent. Apple, Research in Motion and Google all fell 2 percent or more.

Decliners led advancers by more than 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Crude oil finished the session at $125.49 a barrel, up $1.05. The move higher was in sharp contrast to natural gas which fell 46.5 cents after reports showed an inventory build in the commodity. Natural gas settled at $9.283 per 1,000 cubic feet, its lowest price since March.

Economic news helped spark Thursday's sell-off as the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes fell 2.6 percent in June. Economists had predicted a 1 percent decline.

Jobless claims for the week ending July 19 also disappointed as the number of claims increased 34,000 to a total of 406,000. The increase was 26,000 more than economists expected.

Thursday's after-hours action will see quarterly earnings results from Juniper Networks, Microchip and Netlogic.