Investing.com – Wall Street traded lower on Thursday as market participants contemplated weak trading data from China, more signs of labor market firming and a volatile reaction in oil to the weekly crude inventories.
At 12:21PM ET (16:21GMT), the Dow Jones fell 114 points, or 0.63%, the S&P 500 lost 13 points, or 0.62% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded down 40 points, or 0.77%.
Data released earlier on Thursday, showed that China's September exports plunged, while imports unexpectedly shrank after picking up in August, suggesting signs of steadying in the world's second-largest economy may be short-lived.
Exports tumbled 10.0% from a year earlier, far worse than forecasts for a decline of 3.0%, while imports dropped 1.9%, compared to expectations for a gain of 1.0%.
That left China with a trade surplus of $41.99 billion for the month, the lowest in six months, the General Administration of Customs said on Thursday.
The surprisingly weak figures pointed to sluggish demand both at home and abroad, and deepened worries over the latest depreciation in the yuan, which hit a fresh six-year low against the U.S. dollar on Thursday.
In the U.S., weekly jobless claims remained unchanged versus expectations for an 8,000 increase. In signs of a healthy labor market, both the four-week average and continuous claims dropped.
Import prices returned to their upward trend in September, though they rose less than expected, while export prices increased slightly more than forecast.
Still ahead, the federal budget is due at 2:00PM ET (18:00GMT).
The dollar pushed lower against the other major currencies on Thursday, as markets took a breather after the greenback’s recent rally to seven-month highs.
Hopes for a rate hike before the end of the year limited losses after the minutes from the Fed's September meeting revealed that several voting members of the policy committee judged a rate hike would be warranted "relatively soon" if the U.S. economy continued to strengthen.
Market participants awaited a speech from Fed chair Janet Yellen in the hopes that the head of the central bank may give more clarification on the timing of the next rate hike.
According to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, bets were largely placed on December with the odds at 69.5%, while markets only priced in an 8.3% chance for November.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia Fed president Patrick Harker reiterated his support Thursday for one rate hike by the end of the year in an interview with Fox news.
Harker will speak on the economic outlook at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia later on Thursday, followed by Minneapolis Fed chief Neel Kashkari who is also scheduled to make an appearance.
In oil markets, prices initially hit an intraday low on a massive build in U.S. crude inventories, with the barrel of West Texas falling below $50.
However, black gold quickly staged a turnaround, hitting session highs, with some experts pointing to the larger than expected draw on both gasoline and distillate stocks.
At 12:25PM ET (16:25GMT), oil had pared the gains with U.S. crude futures rising 0.12% to $50.24, while Brent oil was gaining 0.10% to $51.85.
In company news, headlines were focused on the fact that Wells Fargo 's (NYSE:WFC) chairman and chief executive officer, John Stumpf, abruptly departed on Wednesday, bowing to pressure over its sales tactics that has damaged the bank's reputation and put Wall Street under renewed scrutiny.
The bank said Stumpf will retire effective immediately and would be replaced as chief executive by president and chief operating officer Tim Sloan.
The news comes after it was revealed that employees in Wells Fargo's community banking division opened about 2 million accounts without customer authorization, which resulted in the bank paying $185 million in penalties.
Wells Fargo, along with JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) and Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), will be among the first banks to report earnings on Friday.
Also in Thursday's headlines, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced it would hire more than 120,000 seasonal workers in preparation for this year's holiday season.