Wall Street falls sharply on dismal data, US-China tensions

• Risk aversion weighs on US stock indexes on Thursday.
• Weekly Initial Jobless Claims came in higher than expected in US.
• US Pres. Trump reaffirms China trade deal won't be renegotiated.

Wall Street's main indexes started the day deep in the negative territory on Thursday as risk aversion became, once again, the main market theme.

Risk-off flows dominate on Thursday

Reflecting the dismal market mood, the CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street's fear gauge, is up nearly 7% on the day. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down 1.4% on a daily basis while the Nasdaq Composite was losing 1%.

Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump repeated that they will not renegotiate the phase-one of the trade deal with China. Trump further noted that his administration is looking for options to possible seek financial compensation from China for withholding information about coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the data published by the US Department of Labor revealed that there were 2,981,000 claims for unemployment insurance in the week ending May 9th. This reading came in worse than the market expectation of 2.5 million and weighed on the sentiment.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Energy Index is down 3.3% as the worst performer. Moreover, the trade-sensitive Industrials Index is losing 3%.