Stocks Seeing Considerable Volatility Following IMF Comments - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After moving lower at the open, stocks have seen considerable volatility over the course of early trading on Thursday. The major averages bounced off their early lows and into positive territory but have moved back to the downside since then.

Currently, the major averages are posting modest losses on the day. The Dow is down 56.28 points or 0.3 percent at 18,019.99, the Nasdaq is down 10.70 points or 0.2 percent at 5,088.53 and the S&P 500 is down 7.24 points or 0.3 percent at 2,106.83.

The choppy trading on Wall Street comes following comments from the International Monetary Fund, which urged the Federal Reserve to delay raising interest rates until the first half of next year.

The IMF's call for delaying the first rate hike came as the lender lowered its forecast for U.S. economic growth this year to 2.5 percent from 3.1 percent.

Traders are also expressing some uncertainty ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly employment report on Thursday.

The report is expected to show an increase of about 220,000 jobs in May, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 5.4 percent.

Before the start of trading, the Labor Department released a report showing a modest decrease in initial jobless claims in the week ended May 30th.

The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 276,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week's revised level of 284,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to slip to 278,000.

Natural gas stocks have shown a significant move to the downside in early trading, dragging the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index down by 1.3 percent to a two-month low. Chesapeake Energy (CHK) has helped to lead the sector lower, tumbling by 3.5 percent.

Considerable weakness is also visible among gold, chemical, and oil service stocks, while most of the other major sectors are showing more modest moves.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index inched up by 0.1 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell by 0.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets have all come under pressure on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index has fallen by 1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index are both down by 0.9 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are regaining ground after pulling back sharply over the three previous sessions. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 6.3 basis points at 2.303 percent.