Thursday's Close: Stocks Fall For Second Day

The stock market continued to undergo a correction on Thursday, although losses were contained. Investors are worried about a falling euro, along with the potential effects on the economy if mandatory spending cuts go into effect.

The concern has triggered a two-day sell off and a rise in volatility expectations. Nevertheless, the market is still up more than 5% in 2013.

Major Averages
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 47 points, or 0.34%, to 13,880.

The S&P 500 shed almost 10 points, or 0.63%, to close at 1,502.

The Nasdaq Composite registered a loss of 33 points, or 1.04%, to 3,131.

Initial And Continuing Claims
Initial claims rose from 342,000 for the week ending February 9 to 368,000 for the week ending February 16. This compared to expectations for an increase to 358,000.

Continuing claims rose from 3.137 million for the week ending February 2 to 3.148 million for the week ending February 9. This compared to consensus estimates of 3.150 million.

CPI
For the second month in a row, the CPI index was flat for January. This compared to consensus estimates calling for a small increase of 0.1%.

On a core basis, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, prices rose by 0.3%. This was the largest monthly increase since May 2011. The consensus had expected core CPI to increase by 0.1%.

Leading Indicators
The Conference Board's Index of Leading Indicators registered an increase of 0.2% for January compared to a rise of 0.5% in December. This was just below consensus estimates calling for an increase of 0.3%.

Commodities
Late in the equity session on Thursday, crude oil prices had tumbled for the second straight day. At last check, NYMEX crude futures were down more than 2% to $93.04 while Brent crude contracts had lost roughly 1.50% to $113.82. Natural gas fell more than 1% and was last trading at $3.24.

Despite overall weak risk appetite, precious metals managed to avoid losses. At last check, COMEX gold futures were up 0.04% to $1,575.90 and silver futures were flat at $28.63.

Both corn and wheat fell on the session, with corn futures losing around 1.5% and wheat falling almost 3% on the day. Soft commodities were mixed on the day with cocoa adding around 1%, coffee close to flat and sugar down better than 1%.

Bonds
Late in the session, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Bond ETF (TLT) was up around 0.51% to $116.86. The gains in bond prices caused yields to fall on Thursday.

The yield on the two-Year Note was down by one basis point to 0.25% while the yield on the five-Year lost two basis points to 0.84%.

The yields on the 10-Year Note and 30-Year Bond lost three basis points to 1.98% and 3.17%, respectively.

Currencies
The U.S. dollar rose again on Thursday with the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (UUP), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, adding around 0.40%.

The closely watched EUR/USD was down around 0.87% to $1.3170 at last check. Other notable movers included the USD/JPY, which lost 0.56%, and the USD/CAD, which added 0.28%.

Volatility and Volume
After a big jump on Wednesday, the VIX continued to rise on Thursday. The widely watched index climbed around 4% to close at 15.28.

Volume was higher than usual once again as traders face the first real volatility of the year. Around 146 million SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) shares traded hands compared to a three-month daily average of 129.5 million.

Stock Movers
VeriFone Systems (PAY) fell almost 43% after the company released disappointing quarterly financial results and forward-looking guidance, which was well below Wall Street consensus.

Repros Therapeutics (RPRX) climbed around 25% after the FDA told the company to proceed with a study of a treatment to normalize testosterone and luteinizing hormone levels in men and accepted additional enrollment in another study of the drug.

Berry Petroleum (BRY) jumped around 19% after the company agreed to be bought by Linn Energy (LINE) in a deal valued at $4.3 billion, including debt.

Safeway (SWY) rose around 14% after the company released bullish Q4 earnings results.

RF Micro Devices (RFMD) fell around 11% after Qualcomm (QCOM) released a competing micro chip. The stock was also downgraded at Raymond James.

Parker Vision (PRKR) surged more than 73% after a Florida district court ruled in favor of the company on most key issues in a Markman hearing for its patent case against Qualcomm.

By Scott Rubin,