Investing.com -- U.S. stocks fell broadly on Thursday, as yields on U.S. Treasuries spiked to their highest level in eight months during overnight trading and the International Monetary Fund issued warnings that the Federal Reserve should delay lift-off on hiking interest rates until the first half of 2016.
Investors await a hectic Friday rife with potential for a steady stream of marketing-moving news, as OPEC is expected to keep its production ceiling unchanged at its annual meeting in Vienna, hours after the U.S. Department of Labor releases its monthly jobs. Separately, Greece prime minister Alexis Tsipras is scheduled to address Parliament on Friday evening after the completion of the latest round of negotiations with its international creditors. While the two sides appear to be reaching the closest level in months of striking a deal, Greece may have angered its creditors on Thursday with a decision to bundle four separate obligations to the IMF into one repayment at the end of the month.
Stocks on the major indices plunged more than 0.75% as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to its lowest level in more than a month. The Dow plummeted 170.69 points or 0.94% to 17,905.58, as all but one of its 30 components closed in the red. The NASDAQ Composite index, meanwhile, fell 40.10 or 0.75% to 5,059.13 and the S&P 500 Composite index dipped 18.23 or 0.86% to 2,095.84, falling below its 50-day moving average.
On the S&P 500, all 10 sectors closed lower as stocks in the Energy, Basic Materials and Industrials industries lagged, each falling by more than 1%.
The top performer on the Dow was Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which gained 0.41 or 0.20% to 208.70. The worst performer was EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD), which lost 1.68 or 2.36% to 69.59.
Shares in DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) spiked nearly 5% to 74.31, after reports surfaced that the nation's second-largest satellite TV provider is considering a merger with T-Mobile US Inc (NYSE:TMUS), the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. Shares in T-Mobile gained 1.02 or 2.66% to 39.35.
Dish Network finished just below Wynn Resorts Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN), as the session's biggest gainer on the NASDAQ. Wynn rose 7.07 or 6.93% to 109.12, after one of the world's largest casinos opened an office on Thursday to serve as a home base for its proposed $1.6 billion resort outside Boston. The worst performer was VimpelCom (NASDAQ:VIP), which fell 0.44 or 6.91% to 5.93. Vimpelcom finished just below Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC), which dropped 2.89 or 2.94% to 95.25.
Wynn Resorts was also the best performer on the S&P 500, ahead of Mylan (NASDAQ:MYL), which gained 1.83 or 2.53% to 74.22. The worst performer Frontier Communications (NASDAQ:FTR) b, which lost 0.35 or 6.41% to 5.04, amid high volume as investors locked into profits from one session earlier.