U.S. market indexes were lower Thursday. For the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 18098.94 for a loss of -45.26 points or -0.25 percent. The S&P 500 was also down, closing at 2132.55 for a loss of -6.63 points or -0.31 percent. The Nasdaq Composite closed lower at 5213.33 for a loss of -25.69 points or -0.49 percent. The VIX Volatility Index was higher for the day at 16.56 for a gain of 0.65 points or 4.09 percent.

Thursday’s Market Movers

 Stocks were lower Thursday as investors watched affects from a disappointing China exports report. The lower valuations were also a result of the FOMC Minutes report which showed the Fed likely to raise rates before the end of the year.

Economic reports on the calendar for Thursday included: Jobless Claims, Import and Export Prices and the EIA Petroleum Status Report. Jobless claims were unchanged from the previous week. The Import and Export Prices report showed import prices up 0.1 percent for the month and export prices up 0.3 percent. The EIA’s Petroleum Status report showed oil inventories up 4.9 million barrels for the week.

Stocks trading actively for the day included the following:

Bank of America

Chesapeake Energy

Wells Fargo

Ford

Apple

General Electric

Cabot Oil & Gas

Microsoft

In the Dow Jones Industrial Average the following stocks led losses for the day:

Chevron -1.33

Goldman Sachs -1.11

Pfizer -0.94

DuPont -0.93

Nike -0.78

Caterpillar -0.7

UnitedHealth -0.67

Exxon -0.65

JPMorgan -0.57

Sectors leading losses in the broad market included financial and technology. The S&P 500 technology sector was down 0.63 percent. Stocks leading losses included the following:

Qorvo Inc. -4.17

Applied Materials -2.72

Symantec -2.65

Xerox -2.55

Teradata -2.30

Salesforce.com -2.22

Western Digital -2.04

In commodities, gold traded higher as evidenced by the SPDR Gold Trust which reported a gain of 0.29 points or 0.24 percent. The dollar was lower for the day as the U.S. Dollar Index was down -0.43 points or -0.44 percent to 97.55.

Small-Cap Stocks

In small-caps, the Russell 2000 Index closed at 1215.75 for a loss of -11.48 points or -0.94 percent. The S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 737.65 for a loss of -7.85 points or -1.05 percent. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Growth TSM Index closed at 7402.05 for a loss of -58.51 points or -0.78 percent. The Dow Jones Small-Cap Value TSM Index closed at 8547.69 for a loss of -56.94 points or -0.66 percent.

Other Notable Indexes

Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1519.60 for a loss of -6.45 points or -0.42 percent; the S&P 100 Index at 946.42 for a loss of -3.20 points or -0.34 percent; the Russell 3000 Index at 1261.40 for a loss of -4.49 points or -0.35 percent; the Russell 1000 Index at 1181.58 for a loss of -3.64 points or -0.31 percent; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 601.44 for a loss of -0.82 points or -0.14 percent.